One Reminder to Stay Present - Wisdom4Humanity with Patrick Mosher

This weekend I spent a day in the woods. 50 degrees, sunny. I even built a fire. I sit down on a stump, and as I reflect, a meditation comes. Work hard enough to have enough. Don't have enough? Then make do with what you have. Can't make do? Work hard to make do. In between the time spent working hard and making do, there's being present. Notice and be grateful for the littlest of things. Celebrate the gift of waking up in the morning. Notice the radiant beauty of flowers. Close your eyes and feel the breeze across your face. Listen to the songs of each songbird. Feel mud or sand squished between your middle toes. Feel cool air fill each portion of your lungs as the air rushes deep into your body. And in a flash of a moment, let your soul be filled with everything the universe provides just to you in this present moment. Sometimes we get lost on the brightly lit path from point A to point B. As we push forward, we often don't see the beauty and blessings. Stop. See the earth glow. It's always there, dimmed only by our uni-focus on getting to point B. Let the meander light your path. So there I am, minding my own business, and I feel something on my neck. It's a crawly of some sort, so I carefully swipe it down in front of me. As if in slow motion, I see the spider spin a thread to catch itself on the way down, and it lands gently on the earth in front of me. It's a reddish orangish spider, about 3.5 inches big including its legs. I continue my meditation. A few minutes later, red spider crawls up the front of me, so easy to see on my green sweatshirt. I'm not a big spider lover, so as I swipe it down again, I blur— "Did I hear it say, 'To live'?" And again it catches itself as it lands gently on the ground in front of me. I continue my reverie, and again red spider crawls up the front of my sweatshirt. As I swipe it down for a third time, I ask, "What do you want from me?" The wind blows and the fire in front of me billows smoke right into my eyes. I don't see Red Spider anymore, and I wonder if I swiped it right into the fire. I tear up. Due to the billowy smoke, of course, I wonder what Red Spider wants from me. As I get up and reach down, I see Red Spider sitting right in the center of a black piece of cloth, as if it were an emblem painted right on it. I smile. Look up and say this short prayer: "It's a good day to live." I bend down to pick up the black cloth, and Red Spider's vanished. So I encourage you, take a moment and pray, "It's a good day to live."