Remembering to Live in the Moment
Today I’m taking a break from writing about my Boutique Farm research, to focus on a concept I so often forget to do, living in the moment. I finished reading The Seven Levels of Intimacy: The Art of Loving and the Joy of Being Loved by Matthew Kelly (ISBN 978-1-942611-42-4). This was the last book on my business class reading list. One key point I took way from this book was remembering to show gratitude for all that you have and that you envision having in the future. Showing this gratitude is one of the ways to help yourself become a better version of you or yourself. Something that my business class instructor had us do prior to the conclusion of our course was to draft a mantra (for lack of a better name) that spoke to what we hoped to achieve. My mantra was:
“I am grateful now that I am living a joyful life, the Airbnb is flourishing, the Boutique Farm is growing and thriving, and the Artist Retreat is up and running; I am working in the studio and garden every day and I can travel the world with my family and friends.”
I’ve been saying this mantra every day since I wrote it, and it really helps when I start to get anxious on the slow progress of the property and us securing it. Indeed, we are moving forward but subdividing land is a slow process and patience has never been one of my strengths. In the above book, I learned what we are currently experiencing is called delayed gratification and it is indeed a true test of one’s patience. Given that we, as a society, revolve around the concept of ‘instant gratification’ this can proved to be exceedingly painful at times and disheartening to say the least.
It was during one of my low points, that I got to thinking more deeply about my mantra, specifically the first part “I am grateful now that I am living a joyful life…” why was I waiting to ‘live a joyful life’? I had been so hyper focused on us finding and securing our dream property that my current life was passing by and I was forgetting to appreciate it! Why was I waiting for my new life to begin? While we wait for the subdivision of the property to complete, why not make the best of the time I/we have here in Denver, or Littleton as the case may be?
I started to think about all the things Andy, and I could do while residing in the Denver Metro area and in so doing I started living in the moment, again! I figured, if our days are numbered, why not start doing all the things we never had time to do or didn’t take time to do while we lived here? What a revelation! Thus far, I’ve enjoyed an afternoon coffee break with my friend Beth who is taking a ceramics class at Arapahoe Community College, I showed her around Old Town Littleton before we headed back to the ACC ceramic building so she could clean up her studio space. It was lovely… I had gotten my teaching done earlier in the day and didn’t worry about all the things I probably should have been doing and instead just focused on our time together.
With Lent over, Andy and I stepped out to have a TGIF glass of wine at Katies Wine Bar and Saturday evening we caught a live performance at the Town Hall Arts Center also in Old Town Littleton. I’ve been saying we should go ever since we moved here last July! It’s a lovely theatre, small and intimate with no bad seats. There is a small art gallery in the back and the volunteers who work there are genuine and delightful! The performance was fun too! The performances are at 7:30 but if you show up at the door at 6:30 (and you are one of the first ten people to do so) you can secure rush tickets for $10! Can’t beat that price. Prior to the performance we had dinner at Real Pho, another place we’d been talking about going to but hadn’t until Saturday. The restaurant isn’t fancy, but food was tasty and the price reasonable. It is also located in Old Town Littleton just up the street from the theatre.
Next up on our ‘Denver Metro Bucket List’ is a Rockies game once the weather stabilizes a little more. I can’t remember the last time I went to a game. Another destination on our itinerary is to check out Creekside Winery in Evergreen. We were set to go a couple of weeks ago and meet up with our friends Craig and Paula who live up in Evergreen but there was a schedule conflict with the girls and Daisy, and we had to reschedule.
Andy’s boss’ wife recently opened a piano bar in downtown Denver, so we’ve added that to our list and we have a get together planned with my uncle and aunt in Colorado Springs. I’m also going to look into the concerts at the Denver Botanic Gardens. When we lived in our first house in Congress Park, we use to go all the time, the music as awesome and who can’t resist a picnic under the starts! So, in short, the moral of this blog post… don’t pine for the future so much that you forget to live in the moment!
Enjoy life where you are and when you are… the future will come and then that will be the moment in which to live!
