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It is so very easy to wonder about the future, worry about the future and only plan for the future. It is just so easy to live our lives this way and then eventually find ourselves in a web of fear. No surprise there. When we are constantly concerning ourselves, as well as each other, we are obviously robbing ourselves of time. Isn’t it strange how the very thing most of us fight for is the very thing we waste most of?

I’m sure that we are all familiar with the term, ‘to be present in the moment’. It is a mantra that has so frequently been tried and found wanting. But I have tried it a few times, and I saw how my focus, patience , memory and calmness have improved. I must admit that I have not practiced this many times, because I simply forget to. Nonetheless, the difference is there, and clear enough for me to notice the change at once.

I don’t have a particular manner of being present in the moment other than deliberately making a conscious effort to become aware of where I am at that very moment, what I am currently busy with and what the hour is. I take no less than five minutes of letting my muscles relax wherever I am sitting, letting my arms go limp and carefully considering my surroundings and what I am busy with.

It is just that. No more, no less. That is all I do, and it has benefitted me.

The most important thing is to be deliberate about being deliberate. I say it this way because it takes a lot of practice to become intentional, doesn’t it? Sometimes one has to practice practicing. For those of you who have no clue what I am talking about, good for you! Truly. Sadly, for many of us it is something that we struggle with. Some of us need help in learning how to help ourselves.

It is my hope that the more we practice being present in the moment, the easier it will be for us to be grateful for the delightful things we have and the delightful things that surround us in the midst of chaos and atrocities.

May we always be found endeavouring to be like this, and may we always find a host of daffodils when we wander as lonely clouds.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud 
by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.



Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.



The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:



For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

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(Lyric poem found on Poetry Foundation: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45521/i-wandered-lonely-as-a-cloud)