Savoring the moment

Originally Posted by happy soul

We should ENJOY the moment, not just 'live in the moment'.

It's autumn up here in north east Scotland, the trees are shedding leaves and they're creating a carpet of the wonderful autumn colours. The sand dunes turn gold as the sun begins to drop over the horizon and the sky turns its yellows, oranges and reds. The ducks and geese have returned to the bird sanctuary and they make their way home from the feeding grounds at sunset. Tomorrow will bring a different sunset.


I can stand outdoors on my own two feet to witness the sunset, to have my own experience of it as people rush to get nowhere even faster and miss the vista. I know people who can't witness it but would like to, I have known people who no longer can and my witnessing of tomorrow's sunset isn't a certainty.


Spirituality is where you care to look for it.

[lemongrass_]

Originally Posted by Greenslade

It's autumn up here in north east Scotland, the trees are shedding leaves and they're creating a carpet of the wonderful autumn colours. The sand dunes turn gold as the sun begins to drop over the horizon and the sky turns its yellows, oranges and reds. The ducks and geese have returned to the bird sanctuary and they make their way home from the feeding grounds at sunset. Tomorrow will bring a different sunset.


I can stand outdoors on my own two feet to witness the sunset, to have my own experience of it as people rush to get nowhere even faster and miss the vista. I know people who can't witness it but would like to, I have known people who no longer can and my witnessing of tomorrow's sunset isn't a certainty.


Spirituality is where you care to look for it.

Thank you for sharing this beautiful imagery, Greenslade! Happy for you to be witnessing this...


much love,
lemongrass

[Unseeking Seeker]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

My car is in at the mechanics today having a registration inspection.

I always use it to drive to the supermarket (which is about a kilometer away), but today I went to the refrigerator...oh gee...no milk, no bread and I thought "dang it, I should have got those things before I put my car in the shop".

Still, I realised the exercise would do me good...and I wanted to have a cheese and tomato sandwich and a cup of tea...so I thought "alrighty then, off to the supermarket I walk".

I arrived back home, only to find a magpie with its baby chick in the garden directly adjacent to my front door...and I stopped, about 3 feet away from it, carrying my shopping bag.

What followed was a human/bird Mexican standoff and staring contest for a minute or so...the mother bird stopped what it was doing, its eyes went red and it said "are you here to hurt my baby? I don't think so!".

With that, I said, 'chill and relax little birdie...I am a friend and a divine soul, just like you are...I mean you no harm" and I projected love towards it.

After that, its eyes went black again and it looked at the bag I was carrying. "What you got in there?" it asked.

With that, I knew I had to give her some of my loaf of bread...and as I reached inside my shopping bag to retrieve it, the mother bird traversed the three-feet distance separating us and stood directly at my feet, looking up at me, and I felt it project love towards me as well, through the movement of its head and eyes...it was not scared whatsoever, as I took out a few slices of bread and proceeded to hand-feed it, while the baby watched on...apparently learning from this...and so, I broke off some bread, throwing it in the baby's direction too, with all of my love.

I gave both of them three slices of bread and then walked by them eating it and inside my house...and I was struck by the feeling that Lord Shiva had just appeared to me and was very pleased with my actions. I found myself smiling in spite of myself.

***

[Unseeking Seeker]

Originally Posted by hallow

Over the past few years I have troubles simply savoring the moment. To be honest this is more for the reader's then me. While so many people are concerned about meditation, yoga, and going to there weekly church service or whatever you do for spiritual connections. STOP! Take a look around! It's EVERYWHERE! not just when you can find time or it's scheduled. Lately I have troubles simply savoring the moment. Till right now. On my way home from work. It hit my like a bolt of lightning. I drive this road everyday and never thought much about it. I attached a picture of what I see and what I have taken for granted. Please don't take any little things for granted they might just be huge for someone. Hope to see some responses out of this. Please send pics of your things that seem mundane they might be inspiring to others.

***

My input to this thread, favouring expanded feeling over narrow thought:

What the orientation on Savouring the Moment is ...

Exuberance as the accentuated awareness mode, devoid of fragmented thought

Consciousness: Free flowing, unfettered & unexpectant

Our presence dynamically still within. ... inner & outer unified in harmony ... moments flow in the stillness continuum, lived, imbibed & assimilated but not evaluated for there is no evaluator

Patterns recalled by memory (inevitable) but outcomes, as whatever may be, embraced a surprise (what was, may not be in the now, for we too in the now are not what we were in the past ... analogical to never being able to cross the same river twice)

[hallow]

Today I definitely savoured the moment, i feel it was a small reward. For my job I help 8 mentally disabled people. When I went into work last night, a few of the people made me a thank you card (for being a good cook). That really means a lot to me itself. But when one of the people woke up this morning they were in a really bad mood, yelling, screaming and trying to hit other people. It was stressful for everyone. It wasn't the person's falt, a mental illness can be extremely hard to deal with. I felt good that I was able to help. When I got home from work today, my wife left a ginko tree leaf on the kitchen table. (She knows I love ginko trees.) With everything, I broke down in tears of joy. Even with the bad I had to deal with. With them 2 things I had the perfect day.

[lemongrass_]

That was really beautiful, hallow...

For one's hard work to be appreciated by the very people you work with and coming home from work to find your wife's loving and thoughtful gesture...

I can imagine how perfect your day must have been with two wonderful moments to savor despite having had to deal with difficulties too. And I can imagine where those tears of joy came from... You deserve that!

I love when that happens... something positive happening overshadowing the negativity/ies of the day.

Looking forward to reading more on this thread... and hopefully sharing one soon.


much love,
lemongrass

Originally Posted by lemongrass_

Thank you for sharing this beautiful imagery, Greenslade! Happy for you to be witnessing this...


much love,
lemongrass

Thank you, much appreciated

[Shivani Devi]

Another interesting narrative for you all to enjoy..

I have been having a terrible couple of weeks...and to top it all off, yesterday, the alternator in my car decided to blow up...and so, my car is in the shop for the next few days...It is gonna cost me $200 to get fixed *sigh* but these things happen as part of the luxury of driving a car.

So again, I have to walk to the shops for anything that I urgently require.

Well, it wasn't as if I urgently required cigarettes, but seeing as how they are a very poor choice for a "coping mechanism"...off I went.

On the way home, I decided to take a shortcut through the park and ran into some of the local street urchins with their homemade bicycles and skateboards taking up residence on a park bench...There were four of them with ages ranging, in my guesstimate from about 7 to 13 years old.

They were watching me approach, their eyes glued to my every movement, while I was trying to avert my attention...hoping beyond hope they would let me pass without paying a "toll" like the Billy Goats Gruff...who was I kidding?

As soon as I got level with their location (there was no other way around), I got "Hello there Lady...are you having a nice day?" and I thought " here we go...wait for it...wait for it..."

So, I turned in their direction and said "Yes, I' m good, what about you all"?

Then the youngest of the litter said "I'm good too...and sorry to bother you, but can you please spare some loose change?" ...Now, I wondered how many people they would have asked the same question...and how many times they would have either been ignored or told to go away, so I said "I'll see what I can do for you".

Now, sitting in the bottom of my bag was a pile of loose shrapnel which has been laying there for a month or so...I had no idea how much was there, but it made my bag weigh a ton, so I reached inside my bag, fetched it for them and gave it to them...It ended up totalling twelve dollars in coins of all varying denominations.

With that, their eyes lit up like it was Christmas and they said "thanks lady, you are very nice and you have a kind heart".

To which I said "sometimes my dears...only sometimes and you caught me on a good day".

[hallow]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

Another interesting narrative for you all to enjoy..

I have been having a terrible couple of weeks...and to top it all off, yesterday, the alternator in my car decided to blow up...and so, my car is in the shop for the next few days...It is gonna cost me $200 to get fixed *sigh* but these things happen as part of the luxury of driving a car.

So again, I have to walk to the shops for anything that I urgently require.

Well, it wasn't as if I urgently required cigarettes, but seeing as how they are a very poor choice for a "coping mechanism"...off I went.

On the way home, I decided to take a shortcut through the park and ran into some of the local street urchins with their homemade bicycles and skateboards taking up residence on a park bench...There were four of them with ages ranging, in my guesstimate from about 7 to 13 years old.

They were watching me approach, their eyes glued to my every movement, while I was trying to avert my attention...hoping beyond hope they would let me pass without paying a "toll" like the Billy Goats Gruff...who was I kidding?

As soon as I got level with their location (there was no other way around), I got "Hello there Lady...are you having a nice day?" and I thought " here we go...wait for it...wait for it..."

So, I turned in their direction and said "Yes, I' m good, what about you all"?

Then the youngest of the litter said "I'm good too...and sorry to bother you, but can you please spare some loose change?" ...Now, I wondered how many people they would have asked the same question...and how many times they would have either been ignored or told to go away, so I said "I'll see what I can do for you".

Now, sitting in the bottom of my bag was a pile of loose shrapnel which has been laying there for a month or so...I had no idea how much was there, but it made my bag weigh a ton, so I reached inside my bag, fetched it for them and gave it to them...It ended up totalling twelve dollars in coins of all varying denominations.

With that, their eyes lit up like it was Christmas and they said "thanks lady, you are very nice and you have a kind heart".

To which I said "sometimes my dears...only sometimes and you caught me on a good day".

that's a really nice story! A few days ago my wife and I stayed at a bed and breakfast. It was a old priest home fixed up really nice. It still had a lot of old religious things in it.
I remembered I had an old "sick box" was a complete set.I picked up cheap at a church rummage sale years ago. I bought it simply because it looked cool and all it did was sat on a shelf in a room no one went in. I thought the priest home would be a better place for it so I gave it to the owners. The owners loved it and gave me a free night.

[Earth Healer]

Thanks to all for this reminder...