When you slow down for a moment ...

I am trying to be calm and quiet more. I want to appreciate, enjoy and fully realize my life and what is happening. Life can be one heck of a crazy ride and mine has been going at full speed lately. Even when life is presenting you with many gifts it can be a blur or overwhelming if you do not learn to be in the moment.

Looking back at my posts it would seem that I have taken a crash course on self awareness and living in the now. Perhaps it is turning 40? Perhaps it is realizing how much of my life I have lived and how, when I look back, some of the years seem like they do not count. It is not that they were unimportant, all experiences are important to some degree (Lord I sincerely hope this is true), but some years almost feel like a very long lull when I was not where I was supposed to be and not enjoying being me. What saved me those years was gardening.

A favorite quiet spot at Ault Park.

What's that you say? This is a gardening blog? Right! Let me bring this to my point. I am learning to be more aware of what my life is today; not what was, not what I may be five years from now, but what it is now.

Gardening and touring gardens is one of the best ways for me to be completely in the moment. The more I sit and take in the surroundings, the more peace I find. Practicing garden photography also helps. Photography makes us study a scene from all views, to wait for the best light and to be still until the bee or bird comes into the frame. With photography you have to be focused and paying attention to what is in front of you if you want to do well.

It is still a work in progress. There are too many times that I do not know that I captured a good picture until I am home and reviewing the shots. If I was more aware of what I was doing and really seeing that which I was taking a picture of, surprises would not happen often. Instead, I would know what I had before I went to edit my 'film.'