What a glorious day.  I sit on the bench of the 13th hole waiting for the family in front of us to finish playing.  It is so easy to be impatient.  Why does this trait come so easily? Does it for everyone or just for me?  I recognize it and realize I have not been practicing mindfulness living.  Swept away in lifes busy routine, I have forgotten to be mindful.  The art of being mindful is to live life purely in the present.  To slow it down and appreciate the moment. Sounds like common sense, something we all know and want and if you ask most people will say they live that way, but it’s not the usual way we live.  It must be practiced.  Most of us relive or dwell on past events or spend most of our day planning and thinking of the future.  Wishing the workday away to get home, wishing the work week away to enjoy the weekend, wishing the winter away to enjoy the summer.  Whoaaa…….slow down.  One of the reasons time seems to go so fast is because we are not in touch and truly experiencing the moment.  Imagine if you really were able to capture the feeling of every moment and be aware of it, time would seem to slow down.

So I sit on the bench and use my senses.  I feel the difference in temperature between the sun on my face and the slight breeze blowing over my skin.  I hear the sound of the leaves rustling, the sound of the grass swoosh as Artie practices his golf swing, the sound of the bird flying overhead.  I see the colors more brilliantly as I become more in tune to the moment.  The white of the small puffy cumulus cloud against the crisp blue of the sky………ahhh…….incredible.  I realize I sit with a smile on my face and experience the happiness and peace of the moment.  And suddenly it is my turn at the tee and I am slightly saddened by that, the impatience is gone……..until the line forms at the next hole at least.  But for a short time I live in only this moment and I remember that I must practice this more. I have forgotten that is doesn’t come naturally to us to do so.  I have forgotten for these ten minutes that I have phone calls to make.  I have forgotten for these ten minutes that I have a pile of paperwork on my desk awaiting me.  I have forgotten for the moment that there is a pandemic.  I have forgotten for the moment that our journey is swift, unpredictable and not entirely in our control.  Instead I live for this beautiful moment and experience, and peace overcomes me.  I will remember and cherish this day more because I have absorbed the sense and the intensity of it for at least several moments.  I remember that I used to be a much more impatient person until I learned to practice mindfulness meditation.  I will again be a more diligent student. Today I will try and absorb every moment, to use my senses more, to be aware of life. It is an easy place to start. 

It is definitely more difficult to live in the moment when times are more arduous than waiting on line at the golf tee.  Harder to practice mindfulness during the work day or during mundane tasks.  But, unless we can afford to put aside these tasks and to sit on this bench daily surrounded by our loved ones,  we better learn to appreciate all of our moments.  Or life will flash us by.  Tomorrow I will live in the moment of each patient, I will remember to appreciate the awesome privileged life I lead. But I have slipped already, for in my writing I speak of the future.  Of course this art of living in the moment doesn’t mean we can never plan ahead or day dream of what is to come, but as I write about the future I live in the moment,  aware of the light filtered through the blinds of the window,  aware of the silence in the room only interrupted by the sounds of the keyboard, aware of the tranquility of my mood and the happiness I feel.  Hopefully I’ve slowed down time for the day and encoded the moments in my memory.