“What day is it?” asked Pooh.
“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.
“My favorite day,” said Pooh.”
                                                 ― A.A. Milne

A leaf … unfurled amidst the rich greenness of a Wisconsin driveway and embracing its share of the sun’s rays as it is proudly displayed on its host tree.  Rays traversing their journey of 93 million miles and making the 8-minute voyage for each ray of luminescence.  What a magical occurrence!

This leaf, now warm and being fed, is living out its life before me.  Its cycle of life and death synonymous with mine only compressed into something us humans call a season.  Its simplicity is something to envy because it is focused on living each moment fully without the burden of reflecting on the past or anticipating the future.  The leaf is truly and authentically in the moment.

This is likely one of many reasons I seek out and immerse myself in nature.  Its classroom of simplicity repairs what is lost as I navigate my human experience.  It offers opportunity to regain my personal perspective and create feelings of alignment with the Universe.  It slows me down, enabling me to rest more peacefully in the moment while casting aside expectations of what life should be … making me accepting of what life simply is, and more willing to freely explore opportunities offered in that moment. 

That leaf is meant to reach out and feel the warm of the moment, not wonder how the sun’s ray might feel later down the path of life.  That leaf has no need to concern itself with how it hung from the tree yesterday, nor does it worry about how the wind will blow it tomorrow.  It simply lives in the very moment, fully satisfied with everything, willing to experience all that is presented it, and fully expressing itself and all its personal essence.  What a wonderful way to live!

Where some mornings impermanence is the theme, today the theme is the singularity of the moment.  The act of being vulnerable, standing naked in the moment of the “now” and knowing it is what is needed to squeeze every oz of joy from a life being lived in my “season” called life.

Ahh … feel the breeze … sense the movement … bathe in the warmth … explore the feelings … life is made from the living of it.