Stretched out on a lounge chair by the pool on an unusually warm fall day in San Diego, a magazine unopened by my side, my husband chats with a neighbor as they soak in the hot tub. The neighbor, an easy going, fun-loving, sporty guy, shares how hard it was for him to be himself when he held a corporate job. The neighbor’s two little girls squirt water from tubes into the pool, as an unhappy, housebound dog howls in the background. The next time my attention goes back to the men, they’re cracking jokes, their echoing laughter a kind of cave-man relief, which tells me again how much men need one another.
A waxing gibbous moon sits far, far way in the still blue sky, a lone palm in the foreground, I call them happy trees, towers high.
As my gaze shifts back and forth from the palm tree to the moon, I’m transfixed by this breathtaking, magnificent moment.
This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. -Psalm 118:24, ESV
When we embrace moments we enter an altar for thanksgiving. By living in the moment, we open to the wonders of God in our midst, not fretting about the future, or dwelling on the past.
Do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? Isaiah 43:18-19, NIV
Living in the now we embrace each breath, God’s creation brimming, our hearts stretching wide with devotion. Running this morning on my favorite beach, watching children tossed by shoreline waves, the azure sky arched above the grand Pacific, it’s surface glistening with diamond reflections from the beaming sun, I said a prayer. It went like this:
Tweet ThisI had a wake-up call this week from Andrew, who some of you know blogs at Blessed Be the Pure of Heart, his words catapulting me from an unconscious fretting I realized had been ruling my week. You see, Andrew is dying and he writes about it. But he also writes about life, and offers profound lessons for those of us taking time and good health for granted. He writes:
“In this difficult passage, and in these particularly tough weeks, I’ve found my miracle. I really had it all along.
It’s this – I want to live, and I am living.
Fully, and the best way I can.
The miracle comes with the somewhat surprising understanding that I’m OK with this, with the process of being terminally ill.
There are many things I won’t get to do, sure. But life’s like that anyway.
I expected to resent this, knowing that I would one day face the situation squarely. Hey, I can do denial with the best of ’em!
But the thing is, life really isn’t about plans and dreams. Life isn’t about tomorrow. It’s about now, because now is all we ever have.”
During this Thanksgiving week, will you join me in embracing your fleeting, God-filled moments, and offer a few simple prayers on the altar of your moments.
Thank you God.
Thank you God
Thank you God.
During this Thanksgiving week, will you tell someone you love them, with utmost attention, like Andrew tells his wife Barbara:
“There is a clarity here, and each moment has become precious. When I kiss Barbara goodbye in the morning, I do it with more care – it’s no longer a perfunctory see-you-later peck. Nor is it a passionate let’s have-sex-tonight smootch.
It’s far more than the former, and far more than the latter. It’s this –
I appreciate you, and I love you, and I will look forward to seeing you tonight, when you return.”
During this Thanksgiving week, will you take a walk, smile at trees, breathe in a cool, slow breath, exhaling a long, slow thanks? Will you, as Wendell Berry says, go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds...and come into the peace of wild things? Will you become like a poem, exalted on high, and kneel? Will you love better today?
This Thanksgiving week I give thanks to you all, new friends and old, I send you blessings! May you all be lost in wonder, hearts full, with gratefulness abounding!
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.”
― William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO ANDREW. YOU CAN READ HIS FULL BLOG HERE!
HAVE A BLESSED THANKSGIVING!
WE LOVE YOUR COMMENTS, TOO!
LINKING UP WITH #SMALLWONDER AND THESE LOVELY GROUPS!
Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving such thoughtful and encouraging words. I love when you said, “When we embrace moments we enter an altar for thanksgiving.” Isn’t this the truth! I read the first part of Psalm 34 with my children today and I explained to them that we are able to bless the Lord at all times when we stop to take in His goodness. There is always something to give thanks for (continuous praise) but we sometimes miss praise opportunities because we don’t stop to embrace moments. I also want to thank you for the recommending Andrew’s blog, I will be sure to check it out! Saying a prayer for him as his family. I also hope you and your family are feeling better. Blessings to you!
I so much appreciate your thoughts, Anika! And I love how you read Psalm 34 to your children today, planting seeds for them to remember always to give thanks in all situations! May you have a blessed Thanksgiving, and I’ll look forward to sharing with you again! Thanks for your gift of encouragement!!
I cherish how deeply in the moment you are able to immerse yourself my dear Kathy. Enjoying your time by the pool while Simon gets his “man time”. Thank you so much for sharing Andrew’s beautiful words: “…..life really isn’t about plans and dreams. Life isn’t about tomorrow. It’s about now, because now is all we ever have.” I just returned from chasing waterfalls in Yosemite and find that time in the wilderness so invigorating. Seems like the best place to understand that “now is all we ever have.”. I make a practice of including in gratitude in my morning meditation practice. I have found another place where it is very easy to be “in the moment”. That is with my new found Lush bath products that are all natural, beautifully scented and have several gorgeous color choices…. I am very thankful for my very luxurious bath on Thanksgiving eve with Lush bath balm Mermaid ocean blue water after a beautiful hike in San Clemente canyon with my husband. Happy Thanksgiving soul seekers.
Love how you had such a beautiful, invigorating time ‘chasing waterfalls’ in Yosemite — nature truly helps remind us of what’s most important in life, and helps us return to the altar of thanksgiving! I love how you make gratefulness part of your daily prayer..And how lovely you pampered yourself on Thanksgiving, sounds luscious, and took a canyon hike with your dear husband!! Lovely, lovely, lovely!!
I need to go follow Andrew’s blog. His words and his story just break open my heart and fill me with awe.
I needed this pull tonight- exhausted and feeling run down and sick from family visiting and mostly good holiday activities and I don’t believe I have felt a bit of gratitude through it all. Isn’t that awful? I just functioned. Sure, there were some beautiful conversations and laughter and good food… but I was rather going through the motions. Stress does that. Not feeling well does that.
If Andrew can embrace the moment and cherish for what it is, surely I can.
I hope your Thanksgiving was beautiful and blessed my precious friend. The pool scene sounds heavenly!
Always love hearing from you and so glad this blog could speak to you when you felt run down (holidays can do that when we’re the hosts–and family visiting can be tiring!)..We become the Marthas instead of the Marys sometimes! How I appreciate your honesty about this, it’s so easy to pretend all went so well after guests — yet it’s so easy to slip out of grace that’s right in our midst! Andrew is a true blessing — his words always catapult me to to remembering what’s most important in life! My Thanksgiving was lovely, but we had to leave early from my brother’s lovely country house because my husband got so sick..pneumonia it turns out! So during this colder season, and the holidays. do take extra good care of your health, lower stress levels, sip some warm tea and wrap yourself in a blanket with a good book! It’s time for Chris!!