The Present Moment

This present moment is all we have.

When I look back at my career as a teacher I regret not being more mindful and living in the moment with my students. What was I doing instead? Well...I was always thinking about what we were going to do next and was I prepared. Teaching students with special needs meant thinking of a contingency plan for every minute of the day in case something went wrong. Some students were non-verbal, some were violent and I had to be prepared for anything to happen. That meant spending a lot of time in my head thinking about the next moment, the next lesson, the next hour and so on.

Of course there were those perfect moments when everything was going smoothly, everyone, well almost everyone, was happy and I could relax and live in the moment. And those times when I just trusted myself and my instincts and flew by the seat of my pants were truly wonderful.

But life is life - I can't live in the past and I can't live in the future, unless time travel has been invented. The only place we can live is in the present moment. I'm trying - it takes a lot of practise and I'm learning a lot from my on-line course with Ekhart Tolle.

In other news...

• I've lost 4 lbs over the past week and things are fitting better :) I sort of kick-started the weight loss with a bout of food poisoning but hey, whatever works! In a perfect world I would like to lose about 6 more lbs but what will be will be...
• Went for a forest run (more like a jog) and ingested a white floaty seed thingy - it got caught in the back of my throat and I almost coughed up a lung. Of course you women who are around my age know what happens when you cough hard for an extended period of time. 😏
• today's exercise will be beach volleyball for 2-3 hours and I'm hoping to ride my bike there and back. It's really windy so I'd say there's about a 50/50 chance of driving. I struggle on my bike when there's a strong headwind. 
• Grrrrr.....I'm in a battle with all the squirrels around here as they dig up my potted plants in my patio area. Someone gives the squirrels peanuts in the shell and then they race over to my place to bury them! 

If anyone knows any safe ways to deter the squirrels I would be grateful!