I dare you to pause and thoroughly enjoy this very moment.

There’s something thrilling about a new snowfall. Where there was brown and gray, old slippery ice and crunchy dead snow, there is fresh, untracked powder. Where there was a slight numbing to the season of winter, there is again a sense of newness and wonder. The delight is very simple, there is no particular storyline. The simplicity of just looking, tasting, feeling, enjoying.

Too often we are caught in the busy rumble and tumble of daily life, the laundry lists are long, the to-do lists longer. The responsibilities pile up, the deadlines approach, and next thing we know we are in a panic and not noticing a single thing around us, let alone how we actually feel.

And then, and then, there is a gentle snowfall. We step out into the quiet chill and a snowflake melts on our cheek. We look up at the previously brown, bare branches and oogle the white fluff of new snow blanketing them. It is deeply important that we savor these moments of simple enjoyment when they occur.  

When we rush past this moment, we are denying ourselves the pleasure of being simply human. What would it be like, right now, if you put down your screen, looked up and out and watched a cloud move across the sky?

If you are reading this, then I assume you are interested in being more present in your daily life. And even more than that, that you are invested in being part of creating a good human society. Well stop and savor, then, allow yourself a gap to enjoy the tiniest moments.

It may only be a snapshot of a moment: a bird swooping suddenly from the top of a tree, a surprising burst of sunshine from beneath a bank of clouds, the soft emergence of a smile from a person passing you by. It matters not what the moment is, but rather, what you do with that moment. Do you pause and enjoy it? Do you rush past it, filing it away as a story to tell someone later without actually having savored it?

These days it is all too easy to whip out the smart phone and take a picture. So, I challenge you to just be in the midst of your experience. Just feel it, just see the tiny miraculous thing, just taste it. Don’t rush to “capture” it and share it. Just hold it for yourself, maybe even keep it a secret, and let that secret enjoyment become a pulsing gem of joy within you.

I dare you to do it, and I want to know how it feels. What does it feel like to savor simplicity? Please let me know!