I will never forget our first night in the house. We got into bed and we talked about how in this new place, we instantly felt at home. We felt the home we were in was the perfect place and one that we could easily see ourselves in forever.
We had bounced around living on the West coast, Midwest, bluegrass areas and now the East coast. With absolutely zero doubt, we felt we were home once and for all and that we would never need to pack again.
Well, after about two years, we found the need to move back to the Midwest. I guess God has a reason and a plan that required us to leave "home." It has been two years since we left and I miss living there more than you might imagine. Some people give me grief about my feelings about living there, but they don't understand that for me it was more home than anywhere I have ever been. After living in various parts of the country, this one place resonated with my very soul. I want more than anything to make it my home once again.
We have been married 27 years and have experienced life in several different places. First in California, a short stint in Kentucky, 5 places in Ohio and two places in South Carolina. Some places hold wonderful times and some places hold both great and difficult times.
Sometimes we look at our lives and summarize life year by year. "Oh, that was a good year," or "Oh, that was a tough year." Maybe a past year even held both good times and bad times. Sometimes we only remember the days that end up making the memory of the entire year good or bad. Those two years on Hilton Head came with mixed times but for me, those two years manage to fall into the "good years" category. Every day wasn't perfect but all in all it was wonderful. I think partly so because that place was me inside and out.
We have talked about loving others, loving those that are hard to love, loving God, loving ourselves and other such topics. Today, I want to touch on loving life. It is a topic I wrestle with often and find myself being critical of the things that want to push a day or year into the "bad year" category.
As I reflect on that poor attitude towards life, I realize life is made up of moments. Stop for a moment and let that sink in. Surely every day is not completely bad. Maybe moments of that day are but not every moment. Do we not all too often let the bad moments of life bring dark shadows that we allow to cover up the good moments? Perhaps the way to push a day or year out of the "bad" category and into the "good" category, is when we see a day filling up with bad moments, we need to make a concentrated effort to make as many moments in that day, good ones. For every moment that we think of as bad, make two moments good moments. We might think that we live day to day or year to year but the reality is that we live moment to moment. Once a moment is lived, we cannot impact that past moment in any way. As far as the next moment is concerned, what can we do about it? It is not yet in our grasp to do anything with or about.
Dan Millman, the author I have learned so much from in his book and movie, "The Peaceful Warrior" is training and mentoring Dan. Dan is frustrated with the training, feeling it is going no where fast and is tired of the effort to change his life. He even states he just doesn't have time for what he feels is nonsense in the training. He questions where it is going and what good is it going to bring. Dan is disregarding the now and focusing only on the future. Dan's mentor responds with "all you really have is right now." Dan goes on to say that if this happens or that happens, then he will really be happy, then he will have everything he wants.
Isn't what he is saying is that what he wants is a great life? Do we not also fall into that kind of thinking? If this or that would happen, then I will be happy. If only this or that had not happened, then I could be happy. We spend so much of our life thinking about what could have been, that we completely run past the moment we are in.
What if we live each moment with the determination to make it a good moment? What if we leave the gloomy moments in the past, where they belong so that they don't impact the moment we are in? What if we don't waste the moment we are in because we are worrying about tomorrow, or next week or next year? What if we make the moment we are in count? What if we make the moment we are in, a moment that we can put in the "good" category? What if we work at making this very moment a good or even great one?
Can we see that if we focus on this moment and do all we can to make it a good or even exceptional moment, then do the same with the next moment, then the next, then we will experience good minutes, hours and even days. With effort and focus on moments, before we know it, we will have had a good month and a good year. It is what we do with the moments that make good, even great days and months and years appear. If we had a lousy day and leave that day in the past, we are free to make today a good day. Why let the things of the past ruin the moments not yet defined as good or bad. If we are wide awake in the moments, we can direct the outcome of the days and years.
Matthew 6:34; "So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" and Matthew 6:25-34; "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body, more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value then they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these...." and James 4:13- 14; Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit" - yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes".
Scripture tells us not to worry but to trust and believe that God will care for us. That frees us up to live in each moment, forgetting the troubles of the past and not worrying about the future.
While we lived on Hilton Head, we had great times and some trying times but those couple years there easily fall into the "good" category. No not good but great! I spent time at the beach at least five days a week. I love the beach and I made each day include moments sitting on the beach staring at the awesomeness of the sea. I thought about life and God, how I could be a better man and how I could make moments count. The island is absolutely beautiful and as I drove everywhere, I laughed. The fact that I lived each day in such a place brought me great joy. As with all of us, my life there had ups and downs but I made so many of the moments special that as I reflect on those years, they are two of the best of my life.
We probably made 75% of Saturday mornings special by getting up before dawn, jumping into the car, going to McDonalds for coffee and a breakfast burrito (Vanilla Latte for me) and with the anticipation and excitement of a child, we rushed to the beach. We carried our beach chairs and food to the beach to quietly to watch the sun rise in utter awe and amazement. I have hundreds and hundreds of pictures of Hilton Head sunrises, sunsets and beach shots that I love. The one at the start of this blog is my favorite Hilton Head picture of all. For me, that one picture depicts the entire two years. It was taken on one of those wonderful Saturdays mornings. We sipped on coffee and wondered at the beauty of the sea and the brilliance of the rising sun. We watched sea gulls and sand pipers scurry along the waters edge so free and full of life. They seemed to have the same wonder we had for the rising of the sun and the start of the new day. On that particular day that I took the picture, I sat back in my beach chair and just pondered my life with the woman I love as she walked along the water picking up sea shells. Understand that she didn't pick up every shell, just the special ones. Every moment she walked the beach looking for those special shells made those minutes special and contributed to making that day special. That one picture, that one moment tells the story of two years filled with such moments. It tells of two years that are defined by those moments making them absolutely amazing years. In fact we have a giant clear glass vase that is filled with special shells and along with those shells, it is filled with special moments.
I have let life back here in the Midwest get away from me. I have let the moments not be special and I terribly miss the moments on the island. Yet, I cannot let today's moments fall into the "bad" category because I can never re-live these moments. After all, "All I have is right now." If I am to love life, I have to love it moment by moment and when I look back I will be able to see that life has been more than good, it has been wonderful.
Make each moment count and make each moment special. Love life moment by moment and you will sit in awe at the life you have lived.