Quite amazingly, we’re about halfway through the year. When I look back upon this year, I remember so many little things and yet most of the year is a blur. I take a lot of photos everyday but I can’t remember if a photo was taken this year or last. The days, the weeks, the months all seem to merge.
I think that’s partly because so many of us lead such busy lives. We’re always on the go go go. And we’re also always thinking one step ahead (assuming we’re not lost in the past.) Worrying about tomorrow’s assignments, next week’s deadlines, and sometimes even about things that are far into the future. If we’re not focusing on the future by dreading it, we focus on it with anticipation. Counting the days until the next vacation. Waiting for the moment the kids are in bed. Looking forward to date night. I could go on and on.
The future has a strong effect on us. It also has a way of stopping us from focusing on the most important thing we have: now.
This very moment.
I’m a planner so I know all about planning for the future. The near and the far. Looking forward, dreading, anticipating, etc. I do them all. But one of the things I’ve been working on more this year is mindfulness. Being more in the moment. This moment. I guess this is something I’ve wanted to work on for a while because my word for 2008 was journey. As in, “life is the journey, not the destination.” Destinations are great. I daresay they are necessary.
But the journey is the key.
Focusing only on the destination will mean missing millions of opportunities for fulfillment, joy, growth, and most importantly, gratitude. I’ve spent a lot of time this year, looking at my moments, feeling grateful for the journey of everyday. Don’t get me wrong, I love the destinations, too. I am grateful when we finally reach a milestone or accomplish something we’ve been working towards. But I am also trying to focus on the moments in between. The paths that lead us there. The churn of the ordinary moments.
Those are the pathways and the journey is life. Being grateful for the journey, leads to being grateful for life. So I invite all of you to spend a little more time focusing on the journey and being grateful for its paths.
The following is cross-posted from the Weekly Gratitude Blog. I will post there every Tuesday and decided to post those posts here, too. For those of you who read both blogs, I apologize in advance. Some weeks the content might be different and other weeks, exactly the same.
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