Being In the Now

Home For the Holidays

/ Luanne Shernisky / 2 Comments

 

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At Christmas, all roads lead home. ~ Marjorie Holmes

 

As I finish up the Christmas to-do list today, I’m reminded of the holidays of yesteryear and the people who were such an integral part of those celebrations. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and neighbors, many of whom are gone now. If we live long enough, we begin to lose them one by one.

I was saddened to hear of two families back home in Pennsylvania that lost a family member this past week. One, my former hairdresser, was 52 years old. The other young woman, a close friend of my son, was 32 and fought a tough battle with breast cancer. She leaves a husband and young son. The Christmases of both these families will forever be overshadowed with the devastating loss of loved ones gone too soon.

I continue to make the adjustment to moving 1,000 miles from home and family is on my mind. I talked about this in detail in A New Kind of December. While I’m grateful to be spending Christmas with my oldest son, his wife, and my daughter, I’m missing the rest of the family back home. This is the first Christmas without my dad, who passed away last March. The holidays can be difficult for many people for a variety of reasons. Losing people is at the top of that list. 

While all of these changes have me feeling somewhat blue, I’m grateful for:

  • my family, even if I can’t be with ALL of them for the holiday
  • that everyone is healthy and able to fully enjoy this time of celebration
  • that we have the basic necessities to live a decent life
  • that we have the opportunity to grow and change, when change is necessary.

That’s when it occurred to me: home isn’t so much a place as it is a spiritual connection to our past, memories, and the people who are/were a part of that. We can physically move far away from the place we were born, but the family history and connections always go with us. 

Tonight we’ll call home and everyone will have a chance to chat with the added addition of Facetime on the iPhone and Skype on the computer. I still remember Bell Telephone’s 1964 long distance slogan, “It’s the next best thing to being there.” Times sure have changed, but like all good ideas, they remain relevant throughout the years.

Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.
~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Happy Places

/ Luanne Shernisky / 2 Comments

As I sit here on the pier, on Sunday morning, enjoying a cup of joe, I’ve finally figured out why the beach is my happy place.

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Because everyone here is happy.

This place represents vacation and leisure time, unlike the rest of the world that we live in. Of course, I’m referring to work, the grocery store, gas station, post office, drug store, dry cleaners, and the multitude of other places, where people are hurrying around living their lives in overdrive. And I’m no exception. I get just as caught up in the chaos as everyone else, forgetting to stop and “smell the roses…”

The other folks on the pier are enjoying breakfast and I get an occasional whiff of bacon. I hear their laughter and easy conversation, as they lounge in their chairs the way people do when they’ve got nowhere to be.

Farther out, at the end of the pier, some folks are casting their lines into the water, hoping to catch the evening’s dinner. 

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The sun is shining brightly from a clear, blue sky, causing the waves to sparkle. On those glistening waves, a group of surfers are paddling furiously, trying to catch the next good one. They are young and lithe, sporting skin the color of coconuts. 

On the beach below me is a volleyball game and I’m pleased to see that the four players are middle-aged. They’re pretty skilled with the ball and look like locals. There’s something about the way they focus intently on the game and each other; totally ignoring the two tourists who observe nearby.

The rest of the beach is dotted with various people: runners, walkers, bicyclers, sun worshippers, children playing in the sand, older couples hidden behind paperback books, and an assortment of others, all enjoying the beautiful December weather in Florida.

Despite being diverse and doing different activities, they all have one thing in common:

They’re relaxed and connected and able to really be in the moment.

And that is why it’s a happy place. There’s none of the usual distractions or aggravations. No one has deadlines to meet. Except for the occasional crying baby, everyone appears to be in good spirits. They’re either on vacation or retired. Even the locals are upbeat and friendly, which may be the result of a steady diet of Vitamin D.

Being in the moment is very difficult to do in our modern world. We’re constantly multi-tasking in order to get everything done. We’re so busy thinking about what’s next that we’re not in the now. Meditation and Yoga are booming with people wanting to learn how to relax. They teach us how to focus on our sensory perceptions and nothing else. We have to completely clear our minds of all the clutter and that’s not easy to do. Just ask anyone whose tried it!

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Any destination can provide a restful, leisurely atmosphere. Whether it’s the beach, or the mountains, or even a metropolitan area. The only requirements are that people must be willing to pack the right attitude and leave the stress of daily living at home.