Life in the Present Tense

Sometimes I feel like I don’t enjoy the present as I should. I have this need to always be planning or looking forward to something. I am just beginning to plan a couple of summer adventure vacations with a friend. Of course I’ve already got the weekend planned. I wonder why that is? Why can’t I just enjoy this moment, or today, or this week just to enjoy it? It’s like Christmas. You anticipate, and plan and look forward to it and then it is over in the blink of an eye and you’re left wondering, what just happened?

The dogs (Morgan pictured here) don't look forward to things. When they hear the word walk, that's when they get excited. When I say time for dinner, that's when they come running. They don't plan their lives. Maybe this is one more instance that I should be more like my dog. Although, I can't ever see myself enjoying poopcicles in the back yard.....

I would like to stop trying to push the present out of the way to get to what I am looking forward to. I just have this feeling that if I don’t stop and enjoy each moment, I may be disappointed when I get to the end of this. You have to remember I have a history of thinking that my life is going to be perfect once I lose weight and then gained it back when I realized that getting to goal does not come with a magic wand. I don’t want to fall into that trap again.

So here I am, trying to enjoy this moment and not think about next week or this summer or next year. I am just enjoying today. Is it okay to not completely enjoy being at work and look forward to getting home to play with the dogs? What kinds of things do you do to just enjoy the moment?