Living in the Now

“Life is what happens to you while you are planning the future,” a friend quoted around the feast of chipotle and death-by-chocolate.

Several recent incidents have jolted me with a similar thought, “This is life. It is happening now. How will I respond?”

With tears flooding my cheeks I watch my stoic brother-in-law bow his head and break.  I watch a man weep. The lot is cast into his lap. The calling is of the Lord. The service closed and the days marched on. But a thought caught me mid-stride. We aren’t teenagers anymore. We aren’t playing anymore. We are the adults. This is life. We aren’t even young-married anymore. (of course not, when one is single) We are the middle-aged. We are the ones that should be shouldering the load.

The phone rings. A friend asks, “Have you checked your email?” My gut wrenches with the message of the traumatic death of a dear older man. When I was little I always thought I would go to funerals to be there with the family. It doesn’t suit. I don’t go. Since when do funerals suit the schedule? This is life. Funerals happen. And you have two choices: to not go or drop all and go.

A scrumptious Sunday lunch – eating in a ring on various lawn chairs and other chairs under a slanted roof chevroned with those cute little bulbs-on-a-string. Mennonites and other-nites contributing to a ‘variety-is-the-spice-of-life’ conversation.  A breeze blows and we conclude this is not the normal weather of hot, humid July in the south. But this is life today.

A Sunday afternoon relaxing on the couch with a stack of eight books-plus my Bible, journal, laptop, cell, a water bottle, and a pillow. The AC is purring. The blinds are slanted. This is life. Stillness soaks into my bones. I read the next and next page. About homespun pleasures and attending.

I read that maybe we should journal before reading, create before consuming. I’m challenged again to find a keyboard. God, give me eyes, ears, and a heart for the now. To embrace You and your gift of life today. To live fully, to be your hands and feet. Today. Now.