Living in the moment – a cooking pot and twisted tales

As always, the hand of time turns effortlessly and before you finish clinking your champagne glass, a day goes by, the 2, 3, and they all roll along to weeks, months and then its year end again, when we rush to meet deadlines, get to sing Christmas carols, feel warm and fuzzy and hey presto! Happy new year greetings are being exchanged once more and we are caught in the New Year resolution fever.

Armed with good intentions, gratitude for the blessings of the past year and surviving the vagaries that comes with living, we eagerly usher in the New Year completely determined to do our best and to get the best out of the year.

A lot of us say things like: ‘this is my year,’ ‘this year will be magical,’ ‘I will have so many breakthroughs this year,’ etc. and the list goes on.

All well and good. Seeking to be better than we were and doing better than we did is always commendable, but the question remains, how dogged, dedicated and passionate are we to truly arrive at these demanding goals that we set for ourselves at the beginning of each year? Or are we just going forward making a wishful list without the backbone to see them through thereby leading ourselves down the path of breaking of resolutions before they have even taken off and multiple disappointments over time? There is nothing wrong with setting goals, but goals without the right systems put in place will place will most certainly fall apart.

As always, I say, live your best life in the moment, try to stay accountable so that you can be the best version of you each day every day in all ramifications and as the moments roll by, it is far easier accomplishing those aspirations. Of course, life happens and sometimes things outside our control happens. Nonetheless, it is not always about what happened to us that’s the issue, it’s about how we react to what happened. It’s about how we rise from the dust of a situation, dust ourselves off and keep pushing and most times, it is easier to pick up from where you left off when your actions are almost second nature.

Think on these thoughts succinctly whilst attempting to revamp your entire life.
What are the deep lessons that you learnt the last 365 days of 2023 and how do you intend to leverage on them?

Happy New Year to you and your beloved ones’. May 2024 be kind to all of us.

There were times in the past that I climbed the steep heights of elation and then came crashing down to nothingness, that I was left feeling like a happiness junkie always in search of that elusive happy rush and when it wasn’t present I felt that everything was wrong with my world.

It took the conscious stepping back and trying to understand myself, trying to break down my issues, compartmentalize and address them one by one to grasp what was going on and how to deal with them.

The tendency was that if something was not right in one aspect of my life – for instance, shortage of finances, I would allow that to dictate how I felt about every other thing, thus missing the beautiful and little things that made my life better.

It’s taken years, soul searching and being in the moment to come to the point where I deal with issues as they are and not allow it/them to mar the rest of my joy.

As I sit writing this little note, I look back and I’m amazed at how the simple journey of journaling my gratitude and making the effort to discover myself inside this body of mine has helped me learn to live in the moment and to appreciate every bit of it.

I no longer seek the happiness rush from momentary elation, rather, I’m charting a steady course of contentment gained from living life itself.

I am thankful for journey mercies bestowed on my husband who returned last night from Toronto. For the great things and little things that I’ve been able to achieve, for the thoughts, inspirations, and imaginations that flood my mind, for vitality and the drive to stay focused and keep moving forward. These are not things that I could buy with money, but they are gifts that come from above.

If you wish to participate in a gratitude challenge, there are several gratitude/thankful platforms in the blogosphere that you can tune into and get your ithankful going on. I can’t express in words the enormity of Joy and fulfillment that comes from having a heart of gratitude. Please check out Maria’s blog,Colline’s blog and Bernadette’s for thankful/gratitude challenges.