I woke up this morning and realized I have a super power.
No, but seriously, I really do and if you dwell on this idea for about two seconds I bet you will see that probably have this power as well.
If you could have one super power what would it be? Common question, overused icebreaker. One of the answers used to be: to be in two places at once. But I can do that! I do that on a daily basis! I, along with millions of other people, are in two places at once every single day.
We are grocery shopping, trying to figure out where all these lethal warnings about high fructose corn syrup have come from. but we are also off in a distant land that only mobile devices can take us to. You see, we can be physically present in a moment but mentally off in three other conversations.
I am heading off to NYC for the day and I know exactly what I will be seeing
on the streets of Manhattan. Busy *important* people on their cell phones, looking straight ahead to get to where they are going, not looking at any one, never stopping to talk. I used to see this just in the city and thought what a pity (poet status) but more and more everyday I see it no matter where I am: Target, the mall, even the gym. People are legitimately burning calories while calling to make meetings with clients.
And I know I am sometimes guilty of thinking, “Who is better than me? I can multi-task like it is my job.” But something slips away in the midst of the clicking our of T9, the sending of that email on our iPhone. We are so busy curled up with someone who is not there and occasions that have not come yet that we allow something even more precious to go to waste. This moment. I know, I know, life is full of moments but where you are right now, all around you, is a moment.
Oh well, we will catch the next one. Or even better we will make up for the lost moment by twittering about the next one. (***If someone can explain to me the point of Twitter I would greatly appreciate it, because I “tweet” and I just do not understand it. When is someone ever going to care that I was here at 10:15pm or eating dinner at the usual 6p.m.?!?***) Excuses won’t really get us far.
And as a blogger I realize it is increasingly more difficult to not be in two places at once. It is very easy to be sucked into the Blogosphere and some days I think my parents are going to put out a Missing Person flier with my little face on it. Of course it is amazing to read what other bright minds have to say BUT… I have my own life, and if I cannot fill it with exciting moments then how can I expect to deliver anything worthwhile to you?
So today friends, I am deciding to leave the cell phone in the purse all day. It will come out on the occasion of locating my friends in Grand Central Station but other than that there should be no reason why I should be frantically checking my Facebook or having conversations with people I am not surrounded by already. Today I will live in the moment, all those waiting anxiously for me to update my 140 character status or email them back will just have to wait because I am in an Empire state of mind today.I want to reach the end of this day and be happy that I really lived it, held hands with my girlfriends, laughed in the city, shared stories and thanked God for such a sweet sweet life.
So I am open to any kind of advice. How do you keep your self grounded in the moment instead of always being in two places at once? What will you do today to cease the moment?
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