Live For The Moment

Several years ago, my favorite aunt and uncle inherited a vintage 1965 Corvair; a car which had literally only been driven by a little old lady to church on Sundays. Recently, my aunt and uncle asked if I’d like to store the car and keep it in good running order by taking it out for drives every few days. Uh, is the Pope Catholic? The “loan” was given on two conditions: One, that I do NOT drive, and two, that.my buds and I do NOT play an adult version of “The Dukes of Hazzard.”

The car had been in my possession less than 24 hours when a friend, Josh, asked me to ignore the work on my desk so we could take the ‘Vair out for a spin. After twisting my arm for what must have been, oh, half a second, I agreed. We drove to a greasy spoon diner where everything is served with gravy, the jukebox still plays 45’s and the waitresses are all named Flo and Marge. Gotta love it! After lunch, we hopped in the car, kicked on the AM radio and howled along to old Hank Williams songs.

Know what the best part was? Not once did I think about the mounds of work piled up on my desk, the dozens of E-mails I had to return or the calls I was missing back at the office. Nope, not a thought. For that two-hour period of time, I just stayed completely in “the moment.”

You know “the moment,” don’t you? It’s that time when you’re not thinking about anything but being right where you are, right at that time, loving life and enjoying the experience to the fullest. No worries. Never once do those usual rapid-fire questions pop into the brain: Did I lock the front door? Did I send in the gas bill? Did I remember to turn off the stove? Nope, none of that.

We’re not just talking about relaxation here, either. Sure, people need time to chill, but that’s just a way for folks to recharge before putting their nose back to the grindstone. What I’m talking about is finding something you love, something that makes you so passionate that worrying about useless sideline stuff doesn’t even come up-a place where you’re just in “the moment.”

Just a couple of days before Josh and I had a time warp back to the 60’s, we sat in his living room and he helped me start working toward a dream I’ve had for a long, long time. Ever since I started learning to play chords on a guitar, I’ve wanted to be able to perform little intimate, one man acoustic shows. Between my six string and Josh’s sound engineering, I left his house with a demo CD and plans to start passing it out to places that have live music on the weekends. Don’t worry, folks, I have no delusions of grandeur of becoming a rock star! Besides, I dig what I do already. Still, for those times while we’d cut and re-cut songs to get the best sound possible, yeah, once again, I was in “the moment.”

So, how can you find times to get in “the moment”? Some folks use meditation, some exercise, some do creative, artistic things. It doesn’t really matter how you get to your moment, just as long as you do! And when you do, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy! Those moments are truly what make life worth living!