Wherever you are, be all there.

"A child on a farm sees a plane fly by overhead and dreams of a faraway place.  

A traveler on the plane sees the farmhouse and dreams of home."

Focusing on being present in the moment is such an important (and often very difficult!) concept for me.  My life has always been about anticipating the next opportunity, path, challenge, or most commonly, the next trip.  Travel has always been a huge part of my life.  When I was a child I would spend many summer afternoons at our local small town AAA collecting books (yes, this is what we old fogies did before the internet!) and making intricate plans down to the smallest detail for all of the family trips I intended to happen.  I would return home with TripTiks, tour books, hotels scouted out...I would even know what road tolls to anticipate.  Unfortunately, not everyone in my family was as interested in living out of a suitcase as I was, so these efforts very often were in vain.  I would spend my time in my small town and dream of traveling to all of the exciting cosmopolitan places in the world.  Rome, London, Madrid, Tokyo, Sydney...sigh.  I imagined all of these effortlessly cool people sitting outside at cafes and piazzas drinking wine, talking about the world's issues with other effortlessly cool people.  I had a month's itinerary in my mind cocked and ready to execute for any city I could get to.  I spent the majority of time as I grew up in my small PA town not being present there, but with my head in the clouds, always on a jet to some faraway land.

After I turned 18, I was determined to realize my dreams.  My travels have taken me across the North America, Europe, Central and South America, Australia, the Caribbean, and beyond.  They were wonderful experiences and I learned so much about the world through my travel.  In many ways it lived up to my dreams and expectations.  And yet the more I traveled, the more I found myself daydreaming about home.  Missing life in my former small town.  Postulating on what people I knew were doing there.  Were they eating pancakes at my favorite greasy spoon breakfast joint?  Were they all lining up on Main Street for a community parade?  Oh how I miss the sense of a community.  Why didn't I appreciate that before?

One thing has become crystal clear to me throughout my time of travel.  Where you are will never be the one thing that determines if you are happy.  It is being present in the place you are.  Wherever you are, be all there.  Every place has its beauty.  Every place has great people.  It is extremely difficult, and extremely important, to stay present in the moment, where you are, with the people around you.  Put down the phones.  All we have is now.  The things you fear in the future, the things you look forward to while wishing away now...they are in the future.

I just got back from another trip abroad.  Tell me if this sounds familiar.  Before I went, I thought, "I can't wait to go overseas.  The new scenery, the exciting new people, the exotic new food, the new sights....just what I need!"  All I have to do is get through the arduous airport scene.  Then when I am abroad, I thought, "thank goodness I am off of the plane and can stretch my muscles.  Ahh!  I better call home and let everyone know I am here safely.  Hmm, I wonder what they are doing now?  Probably having dinner.  I could really go for some good home cooking.  I love that house.  I miss my husband and son.  Man, I really miss home."

Never in the moment!  At least not naturally.  It is something I work hard at, but often struggle with.  It was subconscious for me for many years, this is why I bring it up now.  Perhaps you are unconsciously doing this too.  Bringing it to my awareness has helped me appreciate life and all of the wonderful things I get to experience, RIGHT NOW.  Soak it up.  Don't miss today thinking about tomorrow, because if you do, tomorrow will be another today that passes you by.