Live for the Moment!

So many people have said this to me recently... that we should never forget to live for the moment, because none of us know what is round the corner.

These words had a special meaning for me this afternoon as I sat with my parents. My father's poor eyesight means that he has lost the ability to do many of the things he used to enjoy doing, such as reading books and doing crosswords. And with my mother's memory loss, she too has a life which is far from the one she used to enjoy.

Anyone whose parents are in care will know that it is hard seeing them become so vulnerable when they were always the people who looked after you and had the solution to everything.

But today we did not concentrate on any of that. I enjoyed a moment where both of them took pleasure from the little things. My father had some mint chocolate sweets and my mother some Finnish biscuits (piparkakku) and they both spent several minutes smiling and saying how delicious they were. They would both have a thousand reasons to complain about life at the moment, but instead of doing that, they simply concentrated on what was good, and enjoyed it for what it was.

I guess we have two choices in life. Looking at the bad stuff, (and most of us have plenty of that), or putting it all to one side from time to time and just enjoying the little things, because there are plenty of those too. As I said at the beginning of this post, we never know what is round the corner....so let's make sure to profit from the time we have now. Off you go then...get the chocolate out and your dancing shoes on!