life is not a race

 like my other posts, my thoughts are still on slowing down.  there is just no escape, i just notice how sometimes, i live a frantic and frenzied life.  and when i do that, i end up moving from one thing to the next without really concentrating on anything in particular.  

sometimes, it feels like i have pushed the fast-forward button on life and not stop until the very last.  which is not much of a life at all, at least for me.  bwahahaha!

today i know this for sure:  life is not a race.  it is a walk along the meandering paths at my forest, touching each and every tree that has grown so fast and tall, a casual stroll along the narrow path in between two corn fields, checking a tassel or two of golden hair. . . basking in the time and the space where i am right now.  anything else is some cruel distraction from what is most important.  bwahahaha!

as an aunt to five nephews and nieces, i began to understand that cliche everyone tells me is actually true:  it all goes so fast.  i suddenly notice my nephews do not want to be pecked on the cheeks or forehead, in public!  and they are shy to be told i love them, especially when their classmates in high school are within hearing distance.  and i purposely shout it to kiddingly embarrass them.  bwahahaha!  

thinking about it now, i do not want their growing up to race by; i want it to drag on, deliberately and definitively.

and i want to bide my time.  there is no such thing as waiting until the good stuff  comes.  this is it: the very best stuff life has to offer.  right now is the only time i will ever have.  so it has to be the best - because it is all i get.  i better make the most of it.

so this coming days, i slow down and see the things i need to see:
notice the way the morning sunlight refracts through my capiz windows,
get a whiff of the fresh scent of newly cut grass, 

listen to the concerto of the birds and the bees,
dance in the rain and splash in a puddle,

catch some red, red orange,orange, yellow orange (such colours!) falling leaves. . .

these are not distractions from life;  they are life itself.  
so i  pray,  let me not forget or rush through them on my way to the next big accomplishment.  because in the end, these moments, they are all i have. . .

thank you!