Its been a while and there have been so many times I've wanted to find the time to get back to my blog here with some nugget of insight that hit me. I still don't really have the time I would like to create this post, but I'm gonna wing it because too many of my thoughts are passing through without leaving a trace lately.
Driving back from my run on the Rail Trail this morning (its been weeks since I last had time for that too) I was thinking about how much I notice when I am in the present and how much I miss when I am caught up in the past or future.
The irony is that when I spend so much of my thoughts on the past and future, usually questioning them in some way, the answers that invariably come, only come in the present, which I am not focused on, and so I often miss them.
What does filter through quite often seems like coincidence at first - a song on the radio with a phrase that slaps me upside the head with its clarity, an unexpected call or email from a friend who can add some perspective, a sudden change of plans that provides the needed opportunity for pause and reflection, an out-of-the blue conversation with my seven, ten or twelve year old that cuts to the chase in terms of priorities and the experience of time.
While I can try to spend less of the present time focused on the future or the past, I still can't always quiet the questions. And maybe that's okay so longs as I also spend most of my time in the present, able to receive the answers I am seeking.
Lately it comes in the Mick Jagger classic "You can't always get what you want - but you get what you need." I hear it all the time, everywhere, pulling me out of my worries about upcoming deadlines and career moves. So much so, it is obviously beyond the realm of coincidence.
Like the flash of red I see now so often in the lush green landscape I get to live and commute in, the flash of a good friend's favorite bird (recently revealed). The abundance and constancy of these small creatures is quieting my concerns that the coming changes will 'take me away' from the friendships that mean so much to me.
The universe is always talking to me. In the midst of chaos and change, it practically shouts to get my attention. I just hope I'm getting better at listening.
