Yield

I have had a few opportunities in the last week to practice being in the moment. I’ve noticed that this one small practice shifts me into gratitude and appreciation. It is a life pause, a deep breath, a yield sign on the road of living. How often do you blow through the yield signs?

Yield means to give way to…and in this case to give way to the current moment…to make this moment the most important. Yielding to the current moment puts us at the center of living like nothing else can. We can look around and see and feel exactly where we are. I think that clarity comes out of being present to the moment we are in…especially when we can be in that moment without judging it.

I was listening to an interview on NPR, Here and Now this week. Jeremy Hobson was interviewing David Menasche, a high school teacher diagnosed with a deadly brain cancer in 2006 at age 34. He suffered a stroke in 2012 that left him mostly blind and partially paralyzed. He decided after that stroke to travel across the country to visit his students as they are what means the most to him. Read the full story at http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2014/01/22/teacher-david-menasche.

David said this in the interview: “Being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer gave me a sense of urgency. And I realized that if there was things I wanted to say, I had to say them now; places I wanted to see or things I wanted to do, all I had was the moment to go and do it. And I’ve come to realize that the only moment any of us are truly guaranteed is this one.”

All we have is this moment and then the one connected to the next and the next until they are no more. Yield to it, be grateful for it, let it inspire greatness in you, hug the ones you love, take a deep breath and feel the cold in your lungs. Really look around and see and feel this moment. Use it to be all you can be and let it be the springboard into the rest of your life.

Peace always

Paula