In the moment - life is more than a status update

Cell phones, status updates, tweets. Facebook, Hootsuite, Skype, GMail chat, send texts and up-to-the-minute videos of everything you're doing on YouTube.

We're so busy selfishly updating everyone on what we're doing, we are removed from what we are actually doing. By taking time to tweet that we are enjoying a walk in the park, we miss the flowers we pass, the birds chirping, the moment. We have forgotten how to live in the moment. And so-called "smart phones" have made living in the moment even more difficult. Technology is supposed to help us - and it can - but it can also leave us feeling hurried, out of balance and out of touch.

Yes, out of touch. With life. 

Because life is more than a status update. Life occurs outside of a computer or smart phone.

Ironically, I am writing this in a form of social media, selfishly convinced that people care what I think, read what I write. I mean, who am I to wax poetic about jack smack?

I'm not. I'm just a girl in the Midwest living with a bunch of dogs, outside more than in.
 
But, I am fortunate to have Mondays off work, and I try to celebrate this small fact every Monday. Today, I abandoned my own "smart phone" with its constant vibration gnawing at my subconscious, reminding me of responsibilities, and said hello to the moment - as many moments as possible - all day long.

Had I been "connected," I would have missed out on this:

A blue heron fishing along the shoreline of West Branch State Park

And this:

my daughter's beautiful face in the sun

Life occurs in micro-blips of time, tiny moments of preciousness, small jpgs of beauty. The strawberry blonde of my seven year old's hair; the smell of fresh cut hay in the fields that surround the Ranch; the tiny freckles blossoming on her nose in the sun.

Get out there. Embrace the moment.