Squirrel uses the Crosswalk

What would happen if you were really seeing the world around you?  What if you were experiencing moments fully and completely?  If you have followed my blog, you will know that seeing and experiencing the moment are topics that come up on a regular basis.  When you really see the world around you and are experiencing the moment another amazing thing happens….. you start to notice things that you would never have noticed before.

I live near three schools: a specialty school for deaf and blind children, a middle school, and an elementary school.  One morning on my way to work, I noticed a squirrel on one side of the school cross walk.  He stopped.  Looked both ways.  And then ran across.  Just like the school children do.  It made me smile because it was such a surprise.  If I hadn’t been purposefully in the moment, trying to experience each moment, I don’t think I would have noticed this moment.

Have you ever had a perfect day?  A day in which you were fully engaged in all the experiences of that day.  If you think back to this day, you can recall it in vivid detail?  Everything about the day: color, light, smells, the foods you ate, sounds you heard, and the way everything felt?

One of my perfect days, happened when I was in college,  It was easiest for me to visit my parents for a week in the fall.  I would usually come home in October.  One time, my parents and I were going to Kalispell, Montana while I was home and decided to stop in at Apgar, in Glacier National Park.  We found out that the Going-to-the-Sun road was still open and decided to drive through the park.  Magical is the only way to describe this day.  There weren’t many people in the park as it wasn’t peak tourist season.  At the Summit Station the light was highlighting the dusting of snow that was falling.  There was a herd of big horn sheep.  As we traveled down the road towards the town of St. Mary, the aqua-blue color of St. Mary’s Lake was intense.  The smell of damp forest, pine and evergreen, surrounded me every time we would stop the car to take pictures.  At one point, we saw a herd of elk.  We stopped for dinner at the St. Mary’s Lodge.  The food tasted amazing.  I remember everything about that day.  I was living firmly in the moment.

The more you live in the moment the more frequent these experiences become.  The more you notice.  Today I challenge you to live in the moment.  Open your senses and experience your life.  What things are you noticing today?

Your Life is Your Masterpiece

“What would it be like if you lived each day, each breath, as a work of art in progress?  Imagine that you are a Masterpiece unfolding, every second of every day, a work of art taking form with every breath.”        – Thomas Crum

I have often said that Creativity is more than making or doing cool things.  Creativity is an active choice that you make each and every day.  And Creativity is in the thousand little choices you make every day.  It’s more than the clothes you wear.  It’s more than a hair style or the jewelry one puts on.  It is the choices of music we listen to and the movies, news and television we watch.  It is the food we choose to eat.  And evident in the way we treat others.  Creativity is a life choice that shows up in every aspect of ones life.

One of the biggest pieces of living a creative life is to live a mindful life.  A life focused on the moment one is living right now.  Being present in today.  Seeing, feeling, noticing and experiencing your life as it is happening.  This is what Thomas Crum is talking about in making each and every day a Masterpiece.  Experiencing the now.

Have you ever noticed how toddlers are so excited to do or see the simplest things.  A seed pod can bring endless entertainment.  Toddlers are fully immersed in being present in their lives….. learning and experiencing as much as they can.  They see wonder in everything.  Being present is like being a toddler again and seeing the wonder of things.

My challenge to you is to make today a Masterpiece.  Then tomorrow.  And the day after that.  Until you find that you are making every day a Masterpiece, and that you are present in your own life every day.