It's strange, how life's events come and go…
You look forward to a holiday: booking the hotel, planning what to take, researching the local area, imagining what it will be like.
It seems to take ages to come around; and then it's over – just like that.
It was the same when I was a kid. It hasn't changed.
Except now there's the worry side of it: You worry about missing the flight, or forgetting your passport, or whether you told the taxi the correct time to pick you up.
It's all part of it, though.
Either way, it comes and it goes, and it's over quickly.
When you're back, you wish you had spent longer there: more time at the beach, by the pool, taking in the views, visiting more attractions…enjoying everything that little bit more.
There's never time to do it all, or enjoy it as much as you would have liked.
Or is there?
Either way, it comes and it goes, and it's over quickly.
Then there are things that you don't look forward to: the anxious build-up to a job interview, a long journey, speaking in public, a funeral, perhaps.
You play-out the event many times before it takes place. You quietly stress about it. It occupies your mind weeks before it happens. You lay awake the night before.
Once it's done, you reflect that it wasn't so bad. You got through it.
In fact, perhaps you could found more learning and positivity in the experience – if you'd allowed yourself to.
Either way, it comes and it goes, and it's over quickly.
This is life. It's inevitable. Time moves on.
We're on a raft in a river that seemingly never stops flowing… But it will, one day.
Events and their prevailing circumstances happen, and they end.
You can't stop this cycle.
Whether it's a happy event, or a necessary one that given the ultimate choice one we'd rather not partake in, we all suffer different degrees of stress and anxiety around planning, executing and attending life's events.
Some people thrive on it all, and others suffer quietly through the obstacles and thoughts.
For the latter, mental and physical fatigue can detract from enjoying or appreciating the experience.
And for the former, an overzealous investment in organisation and control can make them too busy with the nest to appreciate the sunrise.
For me, this is where mindfulness / being more mindful of life is so valuable.
I often tell myself, “Be here more”.
Not very poetic, but its persuasive and grounding.
Doing exactly this helps relieve that stress, that anxiety, that worry. It improves your ability for that planning, that organising, that finding peace of mind when you need to relax or sleep.
And in turn helps with the execution, the participation, the enjoying and the immersion in the event itself, so that you get the most out of it that you possibly can.
Every event, situation and circumstance brings a learning experience; a chance to gain knowledge and new understanding or self and others.
But it's often missed; because either way, it comes and it goes, and it's over quickly.
The mental build up is usually longer than the event, and can exhaust us for the event itself.
Life's events take on mini lives of their own, and “being here more” helps me see them as foothills to be leisurely walked rather than difficult mountains to be climbed.
So try an be as present as you can through every step.
Enjoy the build up to that holiday.
Appreciate the learning curve for that job interview.
Be mindful of the emotions of others prior to that funeral.
Be thankful that you are able to go on that long journey.
As we age, the moments slip away faster, and they don't come back.
Do your best to take time to notice, feel and appreciate your way through every texture of the circumstances you are in.
Be here more, and you'll enjoy life more.
This is full catastrophe living.
