Live Where You Are

Am I living where I am?

Bare with me. This is not some overly philosophical question I am asking; too deep for it's own good.

But, am I living in this moment of my life or am I merely passing the time as I daydream about the next years and thens?

I have been reading the book, A Million Little Ways, by Emily Freeman. In it, she quotes Jim Elliot, who says, "wherever you are, be all there."

She then argues with him, stating that there are many moments in life when she doesn't want to be there.

We do not want to be in the recent heartbreak, the life changing diagnosis, the hours of waiting at the post office. We want to be anywhere but there.

Emily Freeman goes on to write, "Living art means being where you are."

Live in this moment that life has you in, however hard, however painful, however mundane.

Because when we fail to do so, when we start to let ourselves sink most of our thoughts into the next years, we miss what's going on around us, right now.

We miss the small arms that can't quite grip around your whole back yet. We miss the dishes that just got washed without you asking anyone to do them.

We miss the love that can be shown by community members when tragedy hits.

We miss the life we are currently living.

In true genuine living we become fully alive. We allow ourselves to make art with our daily tasks, to become an artist who has no choice but to create.

This true living has a way of attracting others. It speaks honesty.

It has a lightness that makes the living so much easier and the art a reality.

And yet, so often I like to daydream about the future, playing out the next years in my head. The house we'll have, the friends we'll make, the school our kids will attend... all things that do not currently exist.

Things no thicker than air, and yet, they are the things I spend my time focusing on. The Pinterest of my own imagination.

I fill up these imaginary boards with pretty pictures of the not right nows, of the maybe one days. And I forget about the concrete life I have in front of me.

The reality.

So, lets live there. In the right nows, in the reality.