Living in the moment - What a blessing!

I’ve read a lot lately about decreasing your stress by living in the moment. Rather than physically doing one task while mentally doing 5 others, living in the moment means being truly present with the one task you are doing. I thought that was impossible and no one could live that way. I am always planning four or five things while doing what is at hand. Well, being sick has really opened my eyes to the importance of living in the moment. I am still recovering from pneumonia and trying to take it easier than normal. Yesterday seemed like a pretty relaxing day. I wasn’t stressed and I wasn’t overly tired by the end of the day. But then I reflected on what I did do yesterday and I was astounded. I had done 3 loads of wash (all folded and put away); homeschooled the children; prepared breakfast, lunch and homemade black bean soup for dinner; gone to the vet, the dollar store, the bank, the drug store, the post office, the library and the grocery store where I did my week’s worth of shopping; and returned home to unload and put all of the groceries away. I am not superwoman, but I was not overly fatigued. What was my secret yesterday? Besides relying totally on the Lord, I realized that I had also lived only in the moment. I knew I couldn’t do everything on my list, so I did what I could without beating myself up that I wasn’t doing more. I didn’t make phone calls while driving and I didn’t write blogs in my head while cooking and I didn’t plan cooking classes while homeschooling the children. I simply lived in the moment. I talked to the kids while driving and listened to them while we did our errands. I’m hooked – I hope! I never really knew how stressful and tiring it was to mentally be engaged somewhere else rather than in the present moment. And I never really knew how blessed I would feel to be recuperating and not at my fullest. I have really learned that God’s strength provides and he is always teaching me lessons – if I live in the moment enough to hear him!