Monday, January 7, 2008

Be Present

I had this inspirational lesson all planned for my seniors today. They watched a Tony Robbins (I know, I know, but it was actually pretty good) PowerPoint my mom sent me that had twelve tips for living a more fulfilled life. The twelfth was to "be present." That really struck me when I first read it. How much of my life do I fritter away stressing about something that's not even happening in that moment? I want to be present. It's what I tried to do over break.

So I got home today and tried to be present with my family. During our gourmet dinner (rotisserie chicken from Henry's and salad-except for Caleb who doesn't eat meat and had pasta instead), I began to feel the stress of the piles of unread essays waiting for me in the other room, so I distracted myself with conversation. Scott informed me that Caleb wet through all of his clothes and bedding during his nap (how this happens with a disposable diaper in an hour and a half I have NO idea-have you seen those things after a trip in the water at the beach??), so the whole lot was waiting for me on the washing machine. Nikki told us that she now has soccer practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays until 5:30, which is a conflict with Academic League, so we'll have to wait until she is done with that at 4:00 on Tuesday and then transport her to practice. All of this happens at school, so one of us will have to be available to take Caleb home and make dinner while the other parent waits for Nikki to finish with practice. Caleb told me he had "pun" on the "swide," which reminded me that I need to follow up on his assessment referral.

I sum, I am very, very bad at being present. Maybe I should pick a new goal.

Oh, and I registered for my last two classes today. At least that insanity will be over in May. Better yet, the classes don't start until the 28th. So I can just sit around and eat bon bons until then.

And yes, it has occurred to me that I should be grading essays instead of typing this.

2 comments:

Melissa said...

See, and I thought you should have been eating bon bons instead of writing this. Or maybe while writing this. Either way.

Cindy said...

You're SO RIGHT about that! What was I thinking??