What Living is all About

I was reading Anne Tyler's new book, A Spool of Blue Thread, and came across this passage, which I thought was a lovely idea.

This is the reverend's speech during a funeral.

"I didn't know Mrs Whitshank," he said, "and therefore I don't have the memories that the rest of you have. But it has occurred to me, on occasion, that our memories of our loved ones might not be the point. Maybe the point is their memories - all that they take away with them. What if heaven is just a vast consciousness that the dead return to? And their assignment is to report on the experiences they collected during their time on earth. The hardware store their father owned with the cat asleep on the grass seed, and the friend they used to laugh with till the tears streamed down their cheeks, and the Saturdays when their grandchildren sat next to them gluing Popsicle sticks. The spring mornings they woke up to a million birds singing their hearts out, and the summer afternoons with the swim towels hung over the porch rail, and the October air that smelled like wood smoke and apple cider, and the warm yellow windows of home when they came in on a snowy night. 'That's what my experience has been,' they say and it gets folded in with the others - one more report on what living felt like. What is was like to be alive."

As a follow-up to my last post about mindfulness and presence, it seems I keep running across ideas and concepts that speak to me about taking the time to focus on what I am doing, right now, presently, so I can remember more bits and pieces of what it felt to be alive. Letting go of all the chatter in our heads about the past, and the future, to see today truly for what it is...it's a different perspective, isn't it? Could be. Why not give it a try?

On Mindfulness and Presence

I am writing the section in Moving Toward Happy (MTH) about mindfulness and presence. Which, of course, reminds me to be mindful and present. This is not an easy task on a Sunday, of all things, because I'm thinking about what I need to do to jump out of the gate on Monday and get work done. I'm thinking about heading into the kitchen for a snack. I'm thinking I'd rather be watching a movie or reading - you know, the stuff that doesn't take as much brain power? It's Sunday, a day of rest.
Yet, I feel a sense of enthusiasm for writing. I'm thinking it's play and not work. I'm thinking it's the side of me that's coming out, come hell or high water, so I better make room for it. And the more I do it, the more present I am, the more mindful I become, the more I love what I am writing and what I hope to give to the world. I want to see the manifestation of all these years of hoping and wishing and dreaming and doing!
It's taking me ages to write because it's easy to find distraction and other things to consume my time. Why is it, I asked myself the other day, that I put other work ahead of my dreams? Author Steven Pressfield says in his book "The War of Art", the more you resist, the more important it is for your growth. MTH is reallllllllly important!
Being present and mindful taps into an ease and flow that you just can't find in a normal hour, when our brains are busy with what we need to get done, when we need to get it done and how we need to get it done. Bringing back our distracted, wandering minds each time we stop focusing on what is in front of us is a way to strengthen that mental muscle so we have a greater ability to see the beauty that is now, in front of us and feel ever more happiness, gratitude and appreciation.