Aging with Grace

Happiness, is not in another place but this place…not for another hour, but this hour.

Walt Whitman

The sun was setting over the ocean near a beach where we were enjoying a spectacular dinner at a premier restaurant. I should have been soaking up every moment. Good company, fabulous food, a gorgeous view. What I was doing, was taking a photo of the moment to hang onto for another day. In my defense, it was just one photo. I do admit, on many occasions, I have spent more time viewing the event through the lens of my iPhone camera than being present in the moment.

In today’s world, with a multitude of distractions, living in the moment is not an easy thing to do. We are engrossed in a book when our phone pings, telling us we have a message. We are at a concert and it’s easy to take out our phone and record it. There are so many things to distract us.

Sometimes it’s our mind that pulls us away from the now. We become distracted by the past or the future and lose what is happening in the moment. We rush past the present because we are in a hurry to move on. Mindfulness is worth cultivating. Once the moment is lost it is gone forever.