being in the moments

 today was a beautiful day, in a way that seems rare here.  it was crisp, dry, and clean, like someone had cleaned the glasses or washed the windows we look through.  so i had to go up monkey prayer hill and see the view.  my new tea field walk.  to move and think and be and try to pay attention all at the same time.

this is what i see when i walk:

half way up i was tired and thought that i should probably turn around and go home to help mike with the kids.  i paused, and i asked God permission, and he said, 'no- just go up i want to show you something.' so i hiked on.
when i got up to the top- i could see lake victoria clearly and kampala and everything in between.  it was beautiful.

i wanted to capture it and save it, freeze it and keep it. but the camera can't do it justice. the layering of the sky is missed. the whole expanse of it is lost, the perspective isn't the same. it reminded me of something someone told me in kenya when i was trying to take pictures of the sun setting over the rift valley. he said, "don't be so busy taking pictures to look at later, that you miss out on the real thing right now." 


it's so true for me.  not necessarily about taking pictures, but just living my life. i can be so distracted about something happening in the future, that i miss the now-ness. 
 
that was what i needed to hear.  be still. be present. be aware. don't miss it!

on the way down i didn't take pictures and i paid attention to the light and the shadows. i listened to the sounds of my shoes and the sounds of the birds and distant church songs.  i opened myself to being right there on that road, in that minute, with that temperature and those sounds. and i was filled with the goodness that comes when we let our life just be in our moments.

tonight the sunset was spectacular.

and it just kept getting better.  these weren't even the best parts.  i had to run and get rose and jude out of the bath at the very end when the sky was electric red, and all six of us watched together under the evening star and the bats as they escaped our roof into the night. we stood and sat- two people wearing only towels- in those still moments at the end the day.