Moment by Moment

Moment by Moment:

(Click for Audio) I am a very conscious driver. Yes, and conscientious. My primary focus is to know what’s around me, and the moment by moment challenges I face to stay safe. My “other” primary focus is knowing what’s happening down the road. I focus close, and I focus farther away.

It’s like a two dimensional view of the world. See close. See far. Moment by moment! It’s almost like watching the clock tick second by second, I watch close…and far…Seconds and minutes, minutes and hours, morning and night.

Living in The Time of Now

Living in The Time of Now:

(Click for Audio) When I was learning archery from a local shop in Texas, the teacher realized how much trouble I was having with hitting the bulls eye. He would whisper in my ear as I was preparing to let fly my next arrow:

“Focus on the target. Let everything else blur. Keep the target the focus.”

Of course, my eye dominance problem also forced me to change from a right-handed to a left-handed bow. But both actions made all the difference. Right equipment to match my needs, and whispered words telling me to focus.

Easily, we live life focusing on everything, and not focusing on the necessary. Our past grabs for our attention with all the mistakes we’ve made, along with the victories we enjoyed. Equally at ease are we with thinking about the future and how great it will be to exist in that far off place of time, and possibly distance.

But reality strikes a blow at the mist of our dreams
and we awake to the present.
Today. This moment. Right Here. Right Now.

The past is a dream. The future is a wish. We are easily trapped outside of the present and struggle with living each day. Oh, that we would learn to be present in the moment of now and live the day with all we possess. Give the day your entire attention. It will bless you with good memories of your past, and prepare you sufficiently to enjoy the future before you.

Do not boast about tomorrow,
For you do not know what a day may bring forth.
(Proverbs 27:1 NKJV)

The struggle for many is focus. Their minds roam between yesterday and tomorrow. Some would label it as “day dreaming”, and others would call it the “fog of the mind” and tell you there are physiological reasons for your daze. Regardless of the label, you must find a way to take ownership of the moment.

Carpe Diem!

Carpe diem is a Latin aphorism taken from the Roman poet Horace and his work titled Odes, about 23 BC. A long time ago! Yet it is still used today by businesses, bosses, teachers, parents and every day workers. Grab the day and make it effective! Waste not a single moment in idle speculation about yesterday, or worrying about tomorrow.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about its own things.
Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
(Matthew 6:34 NKJV)

You have enough problems today not to waste time worrying about tomorrow! Equally stressing on yesterday is also a complete waste of our focus. In the eternal scheme of things, yesterday means nothing.

For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it is past,
And like a watch in the night.
(Psalms 90:4 NKJV)

Here’s My Thought:  Yesterday can cover a wide gambit of time and memory. Living constantly in the maze of our past, we struggle with finding an ending so we can enter the present. With a swipe of our personal power, we can change what we think about yesterday and start dealing with the present.

Equally, do not let tomorrow creep in, else you will get lost in the fog of future.

One of the things I do, and attempt to do (notice, I said attempt) daily, is to take a hard look at all the distractions that reach for my attention and focus. Emails, platform builders, voice mails, social media, classes, books, and tasks list… even my own personal wishes and desires! Each demand my attention so that it is easier to spend time focusing on everything and organizing their existence rather than getting things done that are important for today. I have taken to decluttering, unfollowing, deleting, and even tossing to the recycle bin, the stacks of attention gathering stuff that I have before me.

My load is getting lighter because I refuse to pick more than I can handle.

Carpe Diem! Seize the day. Take charge. Do something productive. Live in the moment! Be success.

Old That Way

My phone is clogging up with photo’s

Yes. I hate to say it, but it’s getting harder and harder to determine which photo’s to keep, which to discard, and how best to do it.

Yes. I know that my photo’s are backed up to the cloud, on my computer, and probably easily recovered. 

But it’s my nature to keep things close to me, and not depend on cloud or connection. My kids just shake their heads when I want to download that video instead of depending on it always being available

I guess I’m just “old that way”…

Yet, I know that the day will come when my kids will not easily adopt to their new world and will be wishing for that old timey way of looking at things.

Dad was sitting, patiently, just waiting for the time to get up and go to dinner. He has a clipboard with his Word Search and was just simply enjoying his quiet moment.

Then I take a picture.

Why? A memory of the moment is easily recalled when you have something tangible to bring it about. Otherwise, my poor ol’ brain might never recall the moment.

I got my first real camera at 16. A Yashica TLE 35 mm. I was a “photo journalist” for High School and was using the Yashica D Twin Len’s Reflex where you focused looking down through a pop-top opening. The battery pack was nearly as big and heavy as a car battery!

Taking photo’s became second nature. My camera went everywhere. When the light meter broke I learned to take pictures by stopping down the lens manually and determining the best speed for the light conditions and subject. 

I still have that camera. And the next one. And the next one. And a studio camera version of the TLR. I basically use my camera phone these days, tired I am, of lugging around so much extra doodads and doohickeys…

Then every once in awhile I catch a picture like this one and realize something;

Capture the moment you are in. 

Treasure it. 

The day will come when your memory and the photo will be all you have. 

Breath by Breath

Breath by breath…Moment by Moment

We live in the moment. There’s nothing to be immediately done that will change the moment just passed, and yet there’s a lot we can do to manage the next moment to come.

The results of our present and future mostly comes from good planning and execution! Things done in our past!

Think about it. Our present and future success or failure are prepared as a result from hours, days, weeks, months, and years of our past. Just like morning is a result of the night, and the night a result of the day.

Most of what we think about, however, is that present moment of life!

You may ask, “How did I get here?” or “Where am I going?” The key to the question is more, “What do I do now?” Lack of historical preparation may scar you in the present, but lack of planning may keep you from progressing victoriously into the future.

For a number of unspoken reasons, I’ve had some pretty restless nights. My wife and I are on different work schedules. Try as I might, and staying up extra late to be tired enough, sleep is just a blurred of waking up at the wrong time and after only a few hours of sleep. Recently, after two restless sleeping nights, I affirmed that the night would be different. Conditions were adjusted and time for lights out arrived. But something kept tickling my mind about left over tasks. Then I wondered how important enough they were to go to the office and complete them NOW.

I watched one day end, and the next day begin.
Then, the next think I knew my wife’s alarm clock was starting the day.
I do not remember drifting off!

Here’s the key. We only have the present to handle, the past to relive, and the future to plan for, but the Right Here, Right Now is the MOMENT to deal with.

Something I learned from a management class a long time ago that I shared constantly with others, are the “5 P’s For Success”….

Prior Proper Planning Prevents Problem

I would roll my fingers as if playing a series of keys on the piano, and recite this mantra over, and over.

It got to the point where I did not have to say anything! Just Roll The Fingers!

We have all found ourselves to be out of planning, or in a place where the planning was not proper. Still, the viewpoint is correct. Prior. Proper. Planning. Prevents. Problems.

Matthew, Mark and Luke all record various times that Jesus said, “Take no thought…” Other translations update this phrase to a more modern tone, “Do not be anxious…”. The Strong’s Concordance shows me that this phrase comes from a variety of Greek words that essentially deal with anxiety. The instruction is clear.

Do not be anxious in the moment you live!

Take a breath. Breathe! Don’t worry about how you are spending the moment, especially if you’re life has been well planned up to that moment. If planning is lacking, then we must remember we have something operating within us that can get us through.

• Our amazing brain can react to the moment, and without much training it can give us what is needed for the moment. Think about how your brain works your eye and corresponding muscles to follow the rapid movement of a baseball. Whether hit away, or pitched toward, your brain is helping your entire body respond to the moment. All of your training, and planning, will help your entire being respond appropriately.
• For those of us with the Holy Spirit, Jesus essentially says that he has given us all we need and the Spirit will guide us into all truth necessary for the moment we are experiencing. (John 16:13)

I believe we can condition ourselves to be responsive in the moment, and not reactionary to the experience. Our emotions, reactions, feelings – are not all things that we learn to control? Okay. Then control them.

It just takes practice living in the moment, and preparing for our response to whatever the moment gives us.

 

 

 

Time Capsule Found

Not that it was ever truly lost.

© Stephan Savoia/AP Photo Pamela Hatchfield, a conservator at the Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, holds a time capsule she had just removed from the cornerstone of the Statehouse in Boston, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2014.

A long night of power outage, and a disconnect from the news, this morning I read the various stories on a time capsule that has been found.

Founding Fathers Samuel Adams and Paul Revere took part in the original ceremony, when a cowhide capsule was placed as the state moved from its old statehouse to its new one across from the Boston Common.

Samuel Adams. Paul Revere. Wow! Read the entire story by clicking here.

It has been removed and possibly updated in times past, but a water leak made it available to this modern public. I wonder what’s inside?

This made me consider my post from yesterday, “Foundation Values” and what their feeling would be if they could compare their present, with our present.

Too many may try to put words in their mouths and talk about how they may be overjoyed or totally dismayed. Instead, think about this. Any time we try to put ourselves into another’s time period, we still carry the image and thoughts of our present. Samuel and Paul could not automatically show up now and grasp where we are, especially if they do not know the intervening history of 200+ years. Nor, could we go back with our present day knowledge and fit in seamlessly knowing all that we know!

Think “Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” story by Mark Twain back in 1889, and then watch the old movie with crooner Bing Crosby. The future knowledge may give you a hint of the past, but your superior knowledge will look like magic to the ancients.

You can’t go back, and you don’t want to go forward.

So, let’s make this moment the best it can be!