a year of moments

a year that begins with an outdoor ride in crisp, clean air under steadily blue skies has got to be a good one, right?

I think it does.

there are many reasons why I bike, but the one I contemplated most today is this: it's difficult to stress about anything going on (or not going on) in your life while you're riding a bike.
I see two main reasons for this:
first, I'm usually working too hard to have enough oxygen (thus brainpower) to think too greatly about anything besides what I'm doing, and
second, during the moments when I'm not working too hard I am too full of joy and gratitude for the experience to worry about any other little thing in my life.

steven lane taylor is the author of Row, Row, Row Your Boat, and has a blog titled Living Life in the Divine Flow. he travels, speaking and conducting workshops on incorporating a healthy spirituality into daily life. in his new year's message this year he emphasizes the concept of living in the present moment: setting goals and then letting them go and living life in each moment it presents.
I was thinking about this today as I rode, realizing that biking is an excellent tool for keeping me in the moment. it's difficult to be anywhere else when you're working hard, watching for hazards, staying balanced and in good form, and enjoying the heck out of your experience out in this great, big, wonderful world.

so here's to a year of moments. a year filled with awareness. a year of joy, exuberance, flowing. a year of surrendering to what is, and accepting it as perfect. (yes, even every moment of my biking performance.)
here's to being grateful that we are given the moments we have, and for loving the hell out of all of them, whether we are tempted to label them good or bad or awful. they are what we have; they are all that we have.

here's to a year of moments: millions of them, all held together with a common theme of gratitude and my very favorite, knuckle worthy, never-to-be-forgotten concept,
faith.

namaste, always

nowhere but there

it happened again today: I was doing my jogging thing and I became thoroughly, deeply, positively engrossed in the very moment I was living.

nothing past, nothing forward, nothing but the clear air and the movement of my legs, my feet connecting with the concrete beneath.

no worries about what happened or what's yet to come, what hasn't happened or what might.

this jogging thing is even better than cycling for being in the moment, at least for me at this stage in the game. ( this most likely occurs because my "jogging" takes away all my oxygen so quickly, and I have to stay focused to keep from following through on my desire to quit. )

regardless, I'm thrilled to have found a new way to be exactly where I am.

I still watch the time, I'm still glad when it's over, but while it's happening, I thoroughly enjoy that place of being nowhere but where I am, nowhere but where I'm apparently supposed to be.