– Rev. Vickie Woolard, Pastor at Plymouth UMC
It seems like such a simple thing, but it brought me great joy.
I took my dogs outside, and while they ran and played in the grass, I sat.
I didn’t stand there and tell them to hurry up so I could go do something else, something more important.
I didn’t have my keys in my hand, ready to be on my way somewhere else more important.
I didn’t have half a dozen more urgent chores I needed to do.
I just sat in the grass. I noticed it needs to be mowed again already, but I didn’t let that bother me.
I watched Miss Bacon roll over and over in the grass, and when she came near enough to me, I rubbed her tummy just the way she likes me to.
Milo Fuzzbucket ran as far as he wanted to, and he came back, panting, to lie down beside me in the grass. He put his head on my knee so he could watch Bacon, and his simple trust nearly brought me to tears.
And for a bit, we sat there in the front yard on Riverneck, me and my two dogs.
I wasn’t in a hurry to do anything else.
I want to get back to a couple of books I’m reading, one a dear old friend I’ve read so many times before – Gandalf and his company of hobbits and dwarves and elves and men feel like people I know well, and care about.
But I’m in no rush.
Nothing feels so important that it can’t wait a few minutes while I sit and be present in this one moment.
Kenny Chesney sings a song, ‘Here and Now’, with lyrics I need to remember, “Ain’t no better place, ain’t no better time than/Here and now“.
And I think, yes, this.
Lord, help me be present here and now.
Help me be where I am, this one moment.
Help us, “…teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart” (Psalm 90.12).
Blessing,
Vickie
Photograph by Vickie Woolard