The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.

~Budda

The above certainly gives me something to aspire to. Too often I find myself living, not in the present moment, but somewhere where I am "should"-istic, "ought"-tistic, and engage in "must"-turbation, as my Theories of Personality prof once memorably put it.

Since autumn (when I usually find the sun is fleeting and "life" gets into full-swing again), how often I have said to Mike, "We really should...", "We ought to...I suppose it's the 'right' thing to do", "We must____, because...". But so much more enjoyable are the times when we go without a "plan", per se. The impromtu dinners, the hysterical and belly-shaking laughter, the unexpected blessing and support of friends who love us for no particular reason other than we are who we are. In those unplanned, uncharted moments, we are so very lucky.

The past four or five months have been a fury of unexpected. Just when we think things are settling down (or sometimes we haven't been afforded that opportunity) another scene starts to unfold. So we've holed-up, retreated, backed out and backed in to our suite. We have got a lot of cleaning, purging, and organizing accomplished.

There is currently a large-and growing-pile of things to take to goodwill sitting by our front door. Pregnancy has grown a desire in me to throw large amount of "things" out, cast them off and be done, to look forward. And now that February-the tease that she is, flaunting spring wantonly-is here we might just be ready to re-emerge. More focused and clear-headed, attempting to "live in the present moment wisely and earnestly".