Life Is Now - This Moment!

I love the way my mind works these days!  Everything is fascinating to me.  I find wonder in the simplest of things.  I feel great affinity for everything around me.  Sometimes this feeling is so great that it almost brings me to tears.  I get pleasure out of the everyday parts of life.  I seek conversations with total strangers over the most mundane things in life . . . weather, groceries, city life.  I feel connected to everything and everyone in the world...and I feel a profound pride in being part of America.  Not a nationalistic thing, but a pride in that we are all connected.  We understand each other - even if we do not agree on all things.  For the most part, we respect our differences. Now, here is the let down to this great feeling.  My body has not been able to keep up with the progress in my head!  When I was younger, I just took for granted all the things I so now appreciate.  My body may have been able to do some great things, but my mind really didn't think beyond what would give me immediate pleasure.  It would be so wonderful  to have the body I had at 22 with the mind I have today.  Oh, just the thought! However, I would not give up the way I feel about things today.  The power I feel in my head is too gratifying to exchange it for a body that could actually perform the deeds my mind can conjure. Those of you who still have a body that performs perfectly should treasure what you can do and try to include an appreciation for all that surrounds you.  Life is so precious and this moment, right now, is your life.  It is not something that is coming or something you hope for . . . it is now, this is it!  Revel in it ... love it...soak it in...share it with those around you...you don't get a single moment to relive.  Don't waste a second...it is all so glorious...and it belongs to you and you alone.  No one else can feel it the way you do.  We are each unique and so blessed.  So no matter what problems befall you today, remember, you are alive! May you live in grace and grace all those around you.

Faith in Your Fellow Man

Today's world is one where we trust no one . . . or that is what we are led to believe.  The thought came to me the other day when I was driving on a very busy and congested interstate highway that this presumption is really not so.  The traffic was five lanes wide with several ramps leading off and on the main expressway.  Cars were changing lanes to the right and the left in order to be in their correct lanes for their destination.  There was no space between cars and traffic was flowing at 55 miles per hour if not more.  It suddenly dawned on me what a dangerous and volatile situation this could be.  One misstep by just one driver and disaster would prevail.  Yet no one made an error.  There was no accident.  There wasn't even a dramatic slamming on of brakes.  There was just very disciplined, stay in your lane driving.  And this is when the thought hit me!  We have great faith in our fellow man.  We trust our lives to individuals we do not even know every time we get behind the wheel.  Very few of these people have any real expertise or NASCAR training. They simply follow the Rules of the Road and defensive driving techniques.  If we didn't have faith in one another, could we even venture to turn our cars onto this highway of chance?  I think not.  It is because we believe that the others out there are as trust-worthy as ourselves that we are able to leave the house!  We do this totally on Faith!  I think this is a wondrous thing -- think about it the next time you drive the expressway!