Celebrating moment by moment

This piece was written by my friend who shared it with me and I am sharing her story with you with her permission.

Spirals and flow trace patterns in my days.

I love watching/listening to the wind roar through the old pine tree tops on my hilltop home.  There is snow covering the land … sun bright in the sky, clouds high and moving quickly across the blue.  Some bush trees that have not relinquished their green leaves yet with red berries intact, the maples and elms show their skeleton branches swaying and bending this day. Brown leaves swirl in small spirals of gust and lift, revealing the unseen movement of the air. 

Recently I was walking in a conservation area and my path took me through a marshy area where the water was thinly frozen.  Looking more closely I marveled at the wind’s imprint on the ice.  In the moments the water turned to ice the wind’s touch left a pattern on the ice surface—graceful and light.   

Back in my snow-covered yard, chipmunks are curled warmly in their labyrinth of tunnels underground, birds of many colours and feather take turns at the feeder, a raptor glides overhead playing in the air currents high above.

Snatches of my days include learning /being with my aging Mom.  She is losing her words as it were—not always able to put together full sentences or even thoughts.  And then able to, clear as a bell, communicate what is essential for her.  What matters is relationship, love in the moment, family and friends, fairness in our world, birds, sunsets, dogs, babies. Sometimes I am sad that she is slipping and is losing touch.  What will the future bring??  I wonder about what I bring to time shared with her and her with me…and others?  I treasure our time shared and wonder how it will be going forward mother and daughter.

Another day I spend time enjoying/playing with my newest grandbabe, 7 months old.  She recognizes me and my heart sings….to smiles, and her quiet laughing face, her joy to pick up toys, roll, touch, eat…. She will sometimes play hiding games – “Ah boo!, and then not… “  And I see this wee girl’s happy observation and her growing strength and all of us that celebrate her place in our lives.  I look forward to what she brings into my days -- thinking about what I can bring to her life as she brings so much already to mine…and others.

My older granddaughter is 2+ and is talking in two languages, expressing herself in phrases and questions and answers…. remembering details is one of her things.  My daughter, her Mom recently shared with me that she has been starting her own sentences in questions and then answering (when she knows an adult would say “No” )  with “Sure,sure, sure”.  She is affirming her own choices, herself!  Of course, it is adorable and more importantly wonderful she knows what she wants…. What matters to her.

And then it occurred to me that all of these experiences of young and elder and in between can all be seen /understood through the same lens. 

Celebrating what is life-giving happens in the moment, by moment, by …. 

Whether wind and water, leaf dance and bird, elder or child, growing or waiting, struggling or flowing through….

Life is best lived without longing or regret, just moment by moment.  Present and connected by beauty and love.