A Reminder To Take In The Moment

Unless you have been living under a rock, which could be enjoyable for a bit, you might notice that things are a bit off at the moment.  Its times such as this that our souls start to crave grounding.  Spring calls us to it naturally by tossing beautiful things here and there, blooms that can draw us in with scent.  Hopefully you are in a place where crocus and snowdrops have popped up similar to Punxsutawney Phil grabbing your attention that winter and the cold will soon be gone.  Here on the farm the orchard is in full bloom filled with scented spring blossoms.  So we are reminder that time is fleeting and it’s even more important to take a pause so as not to miss this moment.  The tulips and daffodils are making their way through the soil and we are very busy planting out fields for summer flowers.  The dahlia tubers are being woken up as well.  During the winter months we store them under the house where they sit dormant around 45 degrees.  We are very fortunate to have such a perfect space for them to winter.

I am a person of curiosity and I feel it is essential to life to experiment and learn even when the outcome might be labeled at failure.  During my training as a black belt, I felt this was one of the most important lessons, allow yourself to fail.  In fact try to fail even more than you succeed.  It helps you from being critical of others, by having the understanding that they might also be brave enough to fail too.  Consider it and then take fear out of the picture.  New techniques and methods are born out of such curiosity so I encourage and support you in whatever you bravely want to tinker in.  Not up up for it, be mindful of those that are and do your best to be supportive of their bravery and not just critical and mean.  They are taking the braver path.

This past winter I took a very brave approach and decided to leave many rows of my dahlia tubers in the ground.  I have done it before and had about a 65-70 percent success rate.  So why not learn more and experiment more.  I have yet to check on my little friends out there to see how they are doing because I am hoping not to disturb their little cocoons.  But it will happen very soon and I will of course let you know how it went.  I also took a different approach to the previous time I left them out.  So if it has a success rate to report I will be happy to share that.  So I go bravely into risk and possible reward.

If you have stayed with me to this point, I want to encourage you to take this week to reflect on all the “bumpers” you might have in your life.  Do you take the same route to work every single time?  Or do you mix it up and explore some of the adjacent streets, find new pathways and businesses, parks, hikes, etc.  Does your morning routine repeat over and over without any edges to discover something new?  How about communication patterns with a friend or loved one?  Observe if you keep repeating the same response or question.  I know the emptiness that a question like “How was your day?” can create.  Explore your patterns and try to mix them up.  “Did anything in your day today make you feel inspired?” “Was there anyone new you met today and what were they like?”  Or even when I friend says something hurtful ask them how they are and if you can help them in any way, rather than making it about your hurt feelings.  They likely are just the one hurting.

With all this being said, stop and try to enjoy the journey more.  Make it stick.  Create memorable moments with yourself or others and don’t forget to stop and smell the roses (or fruit trees too).

Thanks for reading.