King of the Castle! : Living In The Moment

I decided that because my last (published) post was about how one minute can change your life, I would write about how we therefore must live in each moment since we never know what the next will bring. As a Mom, I am really trying to adhere to this. I want to be certain that I am always present - in each and every moment. I want to breathe in every second that I can, not only with my child, but also with life in general. We cannot dwell on the past or worry too much about the future. It is the present that matters most.

With our busy lives, I feel like sometimes we just go, go, go and then it is time for bed. I know as a working mom, that probably won't really change. But, I need to make better use of the time I have with my child, my family, and my friends during those waking hours. We all know that time goes way too fast, so it is important to make sure we embrace the time we have together. I don't want to miss out on anything because I was too tired from work or because I was finishing a game on Words with Friends or checking Facebook. This is definitely a mental shift that will take some work for me to successfully make. But, I have said it before and I will say it again - I would do ANYTHING for my child and this is certainly an easy "anything" to accomplish. Being fully present is something that I want to make sure I am in each and every moment.

A perfect example of this was a few weeks ago. I had one of those nights where I went from wanting to pull out my hair because Jameson was throwing a fit about something to later hugging him in his crib with tears rolling down my cheek because it was one of the most serene, calming moments I have had in quite some time. Darin had a double header in softball that night, so the epic meltdown Jameson had at dinner was enough to drive me bonkers. He flipped the switch back to happy Jameson as we started his bath and by bedtime, he was a complete snuggle bug and I did not want to say goodnight. As I laid him down for bed, he popped right back up and walked over to the side of his crib softly saying, "Mommy". I got down on my knees and he came over and we hugged with his head on my shoulders and his sweet little arms wrapped around my neck. I began to sing all the songs I used to sing to him every night when he was an infant - you are my sunshine, rock-a-bye baby, etc. He fell asleep standing there against my shoulders, but every time I tried to break our embrace or if I stopped singing, he would start softly humming (or softly sing the ABCs!). I did this for at least 20 minutes and did not want to leave his little embrace. However, I knew that I needed to let him comfortably sleep. He laid down and I rubbed his little back and sang one more song and when I shut the door, he cried out to me. I knew he would stop within two seconds, but it took everything in me not to run back and scoop him up and hold him all night long.

It is moments like those that completely erase the headaches and frustrations in life. It is moments like those that bring tears to my eyes because I just cannot believe how much I love my child - it almost hurts how much love I love him. These are the moments that I never want to let go. These are the moments that prove how important it is to be fully present at all times. It is moments like those that affect me down to my soul and make me realize how lucky I am.

Living in the moment is being fully present. I have a feeling that I will continually need to work on my goal of living each and every moment...try not to worry about the future or past...just be present.