I stole this title and the video link I am posting from one of my favorite people - Gretchen Rubin, the author of The Happiness Project.
The road ahead
Now that I have that off my chest, I can get to the blog topic. I am waxing nostalgic this week! I used to be a school teacher - 3rd grade, elementary school music, junior high choir, high school health - every year at the end of August I would start to feel that strange combination of sadness and excitement. I was always sad to see my summers come to an end, but excited about what the new school year held in store for both myself and my students. I haven't taught that kind of school for nearly 20 years, but every year on Labor Day I get those same mixed feelings. I can feel it in the air. I can remember that feeling of worrying about what to wear the first day of school (and changing my mind about five times) and double checking my school supplies to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything. I was too excited to sleep and almost nervous enough to throw up.
Today I have the honor (not really as my lawn can attest) of being the house on the corner lot where the bus picks up the 20+ elementary school students every weekday. Today was the first day of school and kids were lined up 5, 10, 15, even 20 minutes early to catch the bus. They had their moms and dads in tow with coffee cups still steaming. The amount of energy coming from our little corner could have lit up a city block. As I quietly watched the morning gathering (that is never the same as the first day of school), I reflected on the years gone by. For 14 years, we have been the bus stop corner and I have watched a lot of kindergartners graduate from high school. For whatever reason, I was struck today by the fact that it feels like I just moved into our new home yesterday and that some of those first graders are now college students only coming home for a holiday visit.
It's not just the kids in my neighborhood that have grown up - it's my own kids. My baby (he hates it when I call him that) is 26 and just got married three weeks ago. I've been through kids getting married before; I've even been through having grandbabies born before, but never with it being my youngest. In some strange way, he wasn't supposed to actually grow up, graduate, get married, have kids. I know that isn't logical, but it's what my brain and heart were believing. It simply cannot be 26 years ago that I gave birth to a 10# baby boy!!!!!
It is with this set-up that I want to share this video by Gretchen Rubin. She has done many videos over the years, but she says this one is her most popular. I urge you to take two minutes and watch it. Then take three more minutes and think about what you can do to get yourself to stay in the now - the present - the exact moment you are in, whether it is good, bad, sad, happy, or scary - that moment will only be there once. Before we know it, we will blink and wonder where did the year go? the 14 years go? the 26 years go? the 57 years go?
Enjoy NOW while it's still NOW!
