STORE PRECIOUS MOMENTS IN MENTAL COMPUTER

To consciously acknowledge that a thing is pleasing, at the very moment it is pleasing, enhances the pleasure. That sounds like a quote from someone. It is. Me.

Thumbing through some of my earlier writings, I came upon this: "This morning as I was kneeling beneath the blooming Japanese quince, I looked up through the pink blossoms to see the blue sky beyond. The whole picture appeared to be a swatch of printed silk spread out for my inspection. I quit my weeding momentarily and just stared, whispering, `I don't want to forget this pleasant moment I'm enjoying.'" I never have.

Just saying such a thing either in a whisper or audible is like snapping the lens of some invisible camera. It sets the picture in your mind, to be called up and reviewed at any future moment you want to.

To savor the moment at the time it is happening is a habit to be cultivated. Some persons don't realize the preciousness of the moment until it is seen in retrospect. That's all right but the picture, called up later, might not be so sharp and clear. Or the quality of color, sound and taste a tad lower.

When Greg Norman, knowing he had won a big golf tournament, strolled up the fairway to the 18th hole, with the galleries on each side standing and cheering, he turned to his caddy and said, "Let's just savor the moment."

I imagine that Greg still remembers the vivid green of the grass, the angle of his shadow, if there was a breeze, the direction from which it came, the movement in the crowd as they applauded, etc. He consciously savored the moment.

Great moments of victory like that of Greg's come rather far apart, so if one is to have a day-to-day happiness, he should relish the little moments the little but big moments, frame them like a picture and hang them on the walls of the mind.

"I am enjoying the present moment" is a saying you should keep on the front burner of your mind. Thus you won't forget that moment when a yellow and black butterfly landed on your shoulder and stayed a while, the first little tiny pressure ~~~~of your baby's arms around your neck which you realized was a hug, or three little furry raccoons, wide-eyed and ring-tailed, four legs sprawled, getting rescued downward from a fireplace chimney.

Of all the persons I know who had the knack of enjoying the present moment, my Aunt Marg stands out in my mind. She not only had the capacity for enjoying the present moment but for making the present mo~ment more enjoyable. I guess the two go hand in han~d. She see~med so conscious of how much she was enjoying~ life. Whatever she did, whether it was peeling potatoes for supp~er, grin~ding the breakfast coffee~ or hangi~ng out ~the family lau~ndry, she ~~gave the impression tha~t all that had gone before had just been leadin~g to that one moment which she was enjoying so much. It was in the way her hands~ moved at their task. Caressingly, I suppose, would be the word. There was always a sparkle ~in her eyes as if she had some joyous secret. A person was wont to say, "What~ is it, Aunt Marg?" The way~ she would take the lamp from the high shelf, carefull~y, with both hands, set it on the table, light it, stand ba~ck and ad~mire it for a few seconds, you would think that the lam~p had just been invented. Even the sticks of stove wood she would hold up and admir~e before sticking them into the firebox of her kitchen stove, a silent compliment to Uncle Bill, who alwa~ys~, as she said, had them just exactly the rig~ht size and length to fit and make the ~~fire burn brightly. "~~And just look how white this pine~ is and the lovely grain of the wood."

I hear ~you saying~, "But there are moments you don't enjoy, what ~then?" True, true. There's the aching t~ooth, head, toe, rib, etc. There may come times when someone says, "I don't love you anymore. L~et's split," or "The disease is spreading." An ~auditor says, "I would like for you to meet me tomorrow in ~my office, to discuss your IRS return." Someone else says, "Those aren't flying ants. They're termites." That's why it is important to keep life's dice loaded with the pleasant moments so that whichever way they fall they're going to come up with a seven or eleven.

REJOICE!