Seizing the moment

This is my journal entry on the 7^th day of Shiela Viesca's 21-day journey in creative writing with the above title.

“I do not know how to explain it but, for the longest time I seem to be searching for an answer to a question that I do not even know how to phrase.  And that is perhaps why I too often stumble upon what I thought is the answer only to be frustrated and disappointed – the reason for my asking God for a second take or for another chance.  Then I go searching again, resulting in my running around in circles like a rat in a maze.

Upon reflecting on what to write on the title for today, it came to me that perhaps what I need to do is to stop occasionally and ‘seize the moment’.  To end my searching for a while in order to listen whether I have asked the right question in the first place.  For it seems that it is only in asking the right question will I be able to get a real answer and find what I am looking for.

How often have I missed an answer to my question because I had missed the essence while concentrating on the accidents, overlooked the beauty of the rose while focusing on the thorns?

I always find myself always in a hurry.  And that is where my problem lies, I think.  I gobble up my food during meals and miss to savor the real taste of food.  Thus, I don’t digest my food well and end up sick.  Similarly, I race to my destination even on a leisure trip and end up missing the scenery along the way.  I am too tied up thinking what lies ahead and miss the joys of the journey itself.  Like a restless child, I keep asking in my impatience: “Are we there yet”?

It has been only since I suffered from a spinal ailment a year ago did I start to slow down.  Come to think of it, maybe this is God’s way of slowing me down, of making me “seize the moment”, of making me see the answer to my question clearly.

Seizing the moment is listening, as in listening to another person, paying attention not only to his what he is saying but also to what he is not saying through the language of his body.  Seizing the moment is stopping to smell the flowers and enjoying the fragrance. It is wondering at the sight of a rainbow or hearing a bird sing. It is chewing your food slowly and savoring the subtle flavors of food.  It is also talking to a stranger at your gate and asking for his name.  It is wrapping oneself in silence and whispering a prayer of thanks at the end of even a not so wonderful day.  It is staying still, listening to the inner voice of the divine and feeling His embrace.

And maybe after staying still and ‘seizing the moment’, I can finally phrase the right question and figure out the correct answer.”