An Electrifying Reminder.

The bolt of lightning disintegrated into millions of individual electrons, visible to the eye as the beam rapidly struck and vanished. The simultaneous boom verified the close proximity of the strike–it was not a good time to be on horseback!

My only option was to continue down the trail back to camp. Within that option I chose to go fast.  We had two miles left in the 50 mile ride. As we rushed back, the fear/exhilaration my equine partner and I shared made us work together as though we were a well-oiled machine; we could not have been more in the moment than trying to survive together.

Usually it does not take something quite that drastic to bring me into reality–being present in the moment has many benefits to us all.

Sometimes it does take a drastic situation to wake us up to living our own lives. People talk of near-death experiences sending them on the path of gratitude and yearning to live in the now.  Others talk of cancer diagnoses, poor disease prognoses. A car accident, perhaps, can create a wake-up call.

In my day-to-day life, loss has been that stimulus for me. I have not lost my children. I have lost half of the time I had to spend with them. The awakening did not happen at first. The call to enjoy every moment came far after I had to dig it out from under a pile of relationship loss grief (https://www.elephantjournal.com/now/grief-cycles-way-suckier-than-bi-cycles/).

Through that grief period, I went through cycles of anger. One day I got angry because my youngest daughter spilled milk on the dinner table, causing my papers to get soaked in moo-juice.

Mid-sentence in the lecture of being more careful, it struck me that if I would not store my papers on the dinner table,  the milk spill would have not been so damaging. I also felt terrible that I had reacted poorly to a child being a child. I was letting things be more important than the feelings of my children.

I also became aware that I was not being fully present when I was with them. Since that time I have been trying to be more mindful about showing up for my kids.

Some of the benefits I see personally from being present in the moment include:

-Less worry and anxiety.  When I’m present in the moment I’m not concerned about things that could only potentially happen, I focus on what is actually happening.

-Less desire to control things. The more I try to control a situation, the more it gets out of hand. I have found that the more I just “ride the wave”, the more smoothly life goes.

-More joy. When I’m watching what is going on right in front of my face, I am more apt to notice life’s little pieces of humor.

-More ability to relax. Focusing on the current period of time cuts down on the number of overall thoughts and helps to quiet my mind

Don’t worry, these benefits come over time and it may take practice to be able to enjoy them–find more tips to get started here: https://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/09/how-to-be-present-in-the-moment-stefanie-dewysockie-inbox/

I see my adventure with the electrical storm as a reminder to try to live in the present. In our run back to camp, I realized I had no control over the lightning. I wasn’t getting hit (just yet) and I had a beautiful, wonderful horse I had partnered with. As I let loose with a loud whoop and holler (half celebratory for the extreme excitement of the moment, half a whoop of crap-your-pants nervousness), I just rode Rio into camp. We made it home safe.

~Erin Glassman

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