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Monday, April 25, 2016

PJSC #127 podcast Live in the Moment



A lot of us tend to be type A’s, paleo people are not immune to this!  And, it’s not all bad; I mean we type A’s are driven to achieve, and this can be quite useful.  I can’t even imagine not wanting to exercise, but then I have done so daily for more years than I would care to count.
As for eating a proper, healthful, paleo type of diet- it is a desire to achieve that gives us the impetus to start living that goal of a really good diet.  And so it goes- by being driven in some sense, we accomplish very useful and important things in life.  But, it is easy to become a slave to achieving, just as it is easy to become a slave to sloth and idleness: once you start as a welfare person, either through a trust fund of else the government, the idea of actually working at anything seems utterly impossible to even start.
You have to learn to live in the moment.  Every minute of every day is not meant to be spent in “busy-ness”, an endless spinning of our wheels.  The really important times of life, the times that you will always cherish in memory, are those moments when you are literally in the moment, totally immersed in your life as it happens.  Often, this state comes to us easiest when we appear to be doing nothing: just relaxing with family and friends, sitting around a campfire or on our front porch, or just walking through the woods.  These moments are what really make up our lives!
Sure, when we are working really hard at something, whether it is doing a hard set of pull-ups, or sprinting barefoot across a grassy field in sets, we are very satisfied when we are done.  We have really accomplished something!  Our bodies are flooded with endorphins, are muscles are strengthened, body fat burned.  Great!
But, the real enjoyment of living comes afterwards, when we are totally relaxed, showered, and maybe heading outside to fire up the grill for some grass fed steak and baked sweet potato.  When we go for a slow saunter down the road with our dog and spouse in the evening, and we are just being there, in the moment.
It’s really not when we save up for a big vacation, go on a cruise, or buy that new car.  Those are fine, and can be worthy goals, depending on what you like, but it just is not the real stuff of life!   Life is simple.  Life is just being, enjoying the ability to move, to laugh, to feel the sun on our skin and cold water on our tongue.  And, life is all about people and relationships, family, friends, fellow church members and neighborhood folks- your tribe, if you will.
So go out and achieve!  Accomplish goals, big and small, write that novel, paint that picture.  Change the oil in your truck, mow your yard.  Work out, and eat a wonderful, clean, paleo diet, without junk food!  But remember that, at the end of the day, it is simply in living your life, and savoring it by being in the moment.  As Marcus Aurelius said long, long ago:

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.