With all the book writing, family celebrating, house selling, and consulting work of the past few months, I’ve been very focused on the future. I’ve been spending so much time working toward deadlines and vague futures, products and productivity, I am out of practice at focusing on now.
That’s not unusual, of course. This tendency is why there’s a slew of self-help resources about being present, being mindful, staying in the “now.” But if I’m talking about it, reading about it, writing newsletters about it, now eludes me even as I study it.
What seems to work best for me is to put myself into some physically precarious position, fully distracted from anything but the now. I walk across the low-tide mudflats in my Pacific Northwest habitat, feet sliding in the organism-rich muddy, slippery gloop, perpetually perilously close to falling.
When I’m less distractable, I might knit something that doesn’t need to exist, not preparing for its final product, but instead indulging in the fascination of the soft yarn between my fingers.
For today, I’ll stop my work at this computer, and go outside to see what there is to be seen. I hope you find some joy in your now today, too.
