What Does the Present Feel Like?

What a beautiful day!

Staying in the present, appreciating the “now”, is a difficult practice for all of us. Myself, I tend to fluctuate between the ticker-tape in my brain of to-do tasks that I haven’t finished yet, and the schedule and tasks I have set for tomorrow.

Today, I was dog sitting and took my charge out for her noontime walk. It is truly fabulous outside!

Here, in southeastern Pennsylvania, we’re about midway through autumn. We’ve had some nights in the upper 30’s, some days in the mid 80’s, and some days of torrential rain and wind. About half the trees are mostly or all the way empty of leaves, and there are still plenty left that are completely green.

As we walked, I had started out thinking about how different today is from the middle of summer. The sky is blue, but it’s lighter than that deep, dark blue you see in July. The sun is warm, but without the intensity that beats into my skin and feels like it is shining on my bones.

Then, since I was walking barefoot for maybe the last time this year, I crunched through some warm leaves. The next step, I was on soft grass that was warm on top and cool underneath. The driveways we crossed were smooth and hot, the curb was coarse.

A brisk breeze, maybe a wind even, kicked up. It had a beautiful cool edge, and a wild sound thanks to the dry leaves up high in the trees all around us.

I soaked in the light, the air, the sounds and smells and freshness that that walk held. I know that summer is over, along with its everlasting promise of warm and humid. I know that the near future holds cool, cold, dry, and rather uncomfortable weather. But for those 10 or 15 minutes, I knew what it was to be like to just Be.

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