Living in the moment

“Christopher Robin, what day is it?”
“Pooh, it’s today.”
“Oh good. That’s my favorite day.”

I had the opportunity to go with my wife and daughters last night to see the movie Christoper Robin. It’s an excellent movie, and that quote (as best as I can remember it) happens at the end of the movie. Without spoiling it, it’s an excellent movie that I knew would punch me in the gut and make me cry. It sure did.

So what does the movie have to do with minimalism? I’m glad you asked. Minimalism isn’t about stuff....completely. It’s about an attitude, a relationship with things, people, and your surroundings that frees you up to focus on what is most important. And when we’re at the heart of it all, what is most important is today. It’s what we’ve got.

This thought has been rolling around a lot in my head, but over this past week, it’s been so much more apparent. You see, my mom has been a widow since March of 2017. So I’ve been trying once a month to go visit her (she lives 3 hours away) and check in on her, do some projects for her, and give her some company. I went Sunday afternoon through Monday afternoon. This trip had a fairly main objective. Go through my dad’s model HO gauge train stuff and figure out what I wanted. You see, growing up in Wisconsin, we had basements. And in the basement was an 8 foot by 8 foot train table that my dad built. I spent so much time with him putting cars and houses together, laying out track and tacking it down. And then, when my parents moved to Texas 17 years ago, no more basement. Not much space at all for the full train layout. So it sat. And sat. Funny thing is, my dad kept collecting. So in my excavating of things, I found buildings I put together by myself, buildings I helped my dad piece together. Even 2 buildings still in the box, not put together. Train track galore, even....more track that was still in the packaging! You may be wondering how model trains have to do with living in the moment. I am excited about getting my own train layout set up and running. It reminded me about those happy, simpler times of being a child, spending time with your dad, doing something fun. And it made me really think about what living in the moment looks like.

For each individual, living in the moment looks completely different. Even at different points in life, it’s different. When I was in college and just out of college, I wanted stuff. I got credit cards....I paid for that stuff on those credit cards. I didn’t care about the cost. Now, stuff just doesn’t excite me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for what I have, and I’m quite blessed. But I know that I have far more stuff than what I need.

Without giving too much of the movie away, Christopher Robin has grown up. He’s lost that sense of imagination and wonder. In his book “Love Does”, Bob Goff talks about it as “whimsy”. It’s the doing stuff just because. Christopher Robin is so focused on his work that even though he says certain things are important, he doesn’t show it in his actions and choices. And looking in the mirror, that’s the biggest gut punch for me. I know that I’m capable of doing that, and I know that I have. We all have.

So what does living in the moment look like for me? I’m figuring that out. I’m going to be trying to figure it out. I know it involves being sillier, laughing more and enjoying things as they come. Does that mean that I slack off on my responsibilities and duties or not do the best job that I can? Absolutely not! But, I know that it does mean that my attitude and my approach to those duties and responsibilities has to change. For you, living in the moment may be looking at similar things. Maybe it is different things. But I strongly encourage you to take a good long look in the mirror and remind yourself that today.....it is your favorite day.

When plans change...

On Thursday, I wrote about what’s most important and not getting so wrapped up in the busyness of life that you neglect your family or anything else that is important. This weekend, I’ve been reminded of that even more. We were supposed to go on a family camp out but due to the threat (and reality) of heavy rains last night into today, the camping was canceled. So, we were left with a weekend that we expected to be busy, and now was much more flexible. What to do?

Friday was different. Instead of me planning to leave early so that we could go camping, I was able to get more things done. I even got to have lunch with my family, because my girls had an early release from school and my wife had taken the day off of work because of the camping trip. So that was a huge win right there. Friday nights are usually movie night. We ate pizza, the girls picked a couple of movies. And once they went to bed, my wife and I watched Justic League.

Saturday, we were going to skip my youngest daughter’s soccer game because of camping....but she got to play. Then we had contacted our realtor that since we weren’t camping, we could look at houses. We spent the rest of the morning looking at 5 houses. One was a maybe and the rest were ok. Then we went and saw A Wrinkle in Time, because my oldest really wanted to see it and we had read her the book. It was a fun movie.

Today (Sunday), I’m off from playing for worship. It’s been a relaxing, restful morning. We’ll be going to a couple of open houses this afternoon and then a pizza party at my girls’ school. All in all, a restful, fun, good weekend.

Why does all of this matter? Our weekends (and weeks) have been busy. Our upcoming weekends (and weeks) will be busy. Having time to rest, relax and spend time together as a family has been what we all needed. Would it have been fun camping? Sure. But it would have been work and not really as restful as what we got to do this weekend.

When plans change, how do you respond? By nature, I am a planner. I have learned to be more spontaneous and go with the flow. Sure, I’d like to have a plan, a direction, a way to go laid out even before I begin. But I’ve learned that it’s in those times where you are spontaneous, where you have the change of plans that you can really have fun, make memories and get refreshing. Have you had times when your plans changed? How did you respond?

Happy New Year!

I know, we’re already 1 day into the new year. The past couple days I wasn’t feeling all that great, so I was resting and spending time with my wife. But today, I’m back at it. So how about you? What are you going to tackle and take on today? Is it going to be stepping on the treadmill for the first time in a while? Is it going to be taking on your closet? That catch all drawer? Whatever it is, here’s a couple of suggestions to help you.

Simple is key. Instead of starting with the entire closet, start with a part of it. Once you get that done, then your goal is to get to the next part. That whole idea I wrote about on Sunday of bite-sized goals. Make it manageable and easy to achieve. My way of breaking my weight loss goal down into bite-sized goals was a weekly 2 pound goal. Now yesterday was a date day with my wife and no children. We had lunch at a steakhouse, had massages and watched The Greatest Showman (I highly recommend it!) So, yesterday, for my breakfast, I had a fruit smoothie with frozen fruit, almond milk, coconut oil and Greek Yogurt. I had a 6 ounce steak for lunch, and sweet potato fries (which I only ate half of). And we did have an appetizer of jalepeno shrimp things which were delicious. But we only had 4 between the two of us. For dinner.....I had popcorn. Yes, popcorn. But here’s the crazy thing. Yesterday morning, I stood on the scale to get my starting point for the year. 280.6. Today, I stepped on the scale....278.6 And that’s without starting my Whole30 eating (which I am today). And exercise, which I’ll be adding in as well.

The other thing that we forget about is making it fun. Jon Acuff did a great job of writing about this in his book Finish, and I think that’s something we lose sight of. Whatever we’re doing has to be drudgery because it’s “work” and it’s “cleaning up” or it’s “getting healthy” or whatever you want to call it. But seriously, if you want to get some serious cleaning done.....put on some “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor and get that stuff knocked out! Or before you workout, make yourself a motivational playlist that’s going to get you going. Music helps lots! Or maybe once you get that small goal done, you give yourself a small reward, and once you get that big goal done, you give yourself a big reward! You know you better than anyone else, so you have to decide what is going to motivate you to do it.

So start small and have fun!Bite sized goals