{"id":379717,"date":"2011-01-09T18:59:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-09T18:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/2011\/01\/09\/moments\/"},"modified":"2011-01-09T18:59:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-09T18:59:00","slug":"moments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/2011\/01\/09\/moments\/","title":{"rendered":"Moments"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I have needed today. I have looked forward to today. I don’t spend enough days devoted to pampering myself.<\/p>\n

How many of us do?<\/p>\n

Yesterday I toiled and worked and slaved at my computer, preparing for year-end. Papers up the wazoo. Though I felt a great sense of elation when I checked off giant piles of receipts that needed reconciling, the day was one full of drudgery. I toiled until ten o’clock, so that today I wouldn’t even have to give work a cursory glance. (Okay, so I took an hour-long break and sat in the hot tub with a friend…)<\/p>\n

But today? Today is my birthday. And I chose to celebrate in personal splendor. My desire was to spend the day doing only things which bring me joy. This is how my day went:
1. I woke and made a light breakfast for some girlfriends who were coming over.
2. I chatted and ate and wrote and read with my friends. Three glorious<\/em> hours!
3. I sat on the couch, where I could finally admire and appreciate my Christmas tree. (Who has time for such indulgences during the holiday itself?)
4. I enjoyed playing Mario Party 8 with two of my three children. I especially loved the laughter.
5. I lounged on the sofa and read all of the well wishes from my friends.
6. I opened birthday cards that had arrived in the mail.
7. I went to dinner with my family and several friends.
8. I opened presents.<\/p>\n

I began the above entry on December 30. By the time my birthday festivities had ended I was pooped, too tired to finish the entry. Then New Year’s Eve arrived and I stayed up until nearly four o’clock playing cards with my husband and some friends. I haven’t done that since my college days! Needless to say, I slept half of Sunday away…then came life: work and school and evening obligations and weary…<\/p>\n

Today has brought me full circle to ten days ago. I spent yesterday on my feet, cleaning and catching up. More bookwork, and laundry up the wazoo. Right now, I am sitting on the sofa. The tree lights glisten across the room. The sun sparkles against a fresh, fluffy snowfall. I have had a simple morning. I am rested. Hubby has taken the rare day off from work. He sits on the floor, sanding and staining a piece of furniture, as he watches football. The scratch, scratch, scratch<\/em> sound of cloth against wood is somehow soothing. Moments of peace. Joy. Rest. Contentment.<\/p>\n

As I write this, a part of me wants to hold tightly to this memory, to ward off the chaos that will begin again, tomorrow. Even as I write those words, though, I recognize how important the diversity is, how vital it is to have balance in life. How many times have I said that, if we didn’t have the ugly, we couldn’t appreciate the beauty. If we don’t have the stress, we can’t appreciate the moments.<\/p>\n

Maybe that is what the wise ones mean by be present in the<\/em> moment<\/em>. We need to embrace it, rather than use it as a pawn against the pressures of life.<\/p>\n

Join me in the moment, then share yours, and spread the joy…<\/p>\n

Soon…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have needed today. I have looked forward to today. I don’t spend enough days devoted to pampering myself. How many of us do? Yesterday I toiled and worked and slaved at my computer, preparing for year-end. Papers up the wazoo. Though I felt a great sense of elation when I checked off giant piles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[113,52,104,19,114,63,115,28,86,69],"class_list":["post-379717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-happy","tag-inspiration","tag-moments","tag-parenting","tag-self-awarenesss","tag-spirituality","tag-stress","tag-the-five-facets"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}