The Gift of Today.Embracing the Present Moment this Matariki

Have you ever stopped to consider your relationship with time?

This weekend is Matariki weekend in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Matariki is the Māori new year, a time of reflection and remembering those who have passed and expressing gratitude and celebrating life.

We have just had a celebration as a family. John and I travelled up to Auckland to celebrate with Luke and his friends for his 21st birthday. We didn't just celebrate the birthday but got to appreciate his new adult life, see how he has adapted and feel really grateful for the young man he is becoming.

I couldn't help but reflect on how fast time passes us by.

Many of us live as though life begins just beyond today. Waiting for the next holday, the next visit from a friend, for payday, the weekend, retirement, or even the next sports challenge we secretly enjoy conquering.

We spend so much energy leaning into the future that today becomes little more than a waiting room.

Others spend time looking backwards, replaying conversations, revisiting old hurts, reliving happier seasons, or wondering what might have been if different choices had been made. The past can become so familiar that we forget to inhabit the present.

Yet neither the future nor the past is where life is actually happening. The present moment is the only place we ever truly live.

This moment.

The one you are in right now.

One of my favourite Authors Mitch Albom captures this beautifully in his book The time keeper. He imagines the first man to measure time becoming "Father time" condemned to listen to humanitys endless pleas for either more time or less . Through the story, Albom asks whether our obsession with measuring time has distracted us from living it. One of his observations is that because we measure time, we fear running out of it.

Perhaps thats why we find ourselves always reaching out for whats coming next.

What if this ordinary day is the very day we have been waiting for?

Todays cup of coffee, this conversation with a stranger, a quiet walk, the laughter at the office, the peaceful evening in front of the fire. Not seeing them as interuptions to life- but life itself, life to enjoy.

Joy isn't always found in the milestones but perhaps it's quietly on the sidelines waiting to be observed.

Ive been learning that joy and contentment both begin with paying attention to the now. Not judging this moment as good or bad. Not wishing it away. Simply just noticing it. Putting my phone down and being present.

Gratitude has a remarkable way of slowing time. The more we appreciate what is already here the less desperate we become for what's next.

Jesus often drew peoples attention back to the present. "Consider the lilies" he said . He invited people to notice , to trust , and to release tomorrows worries. There is a deep wisdom in that invitation . We cannot live yesterday again, nor can we inhabit tomorrow before it arrives. We can only meet God , ourselves and each other here today.

Perhaps that's one of lifes greatests invitations- not to stop dreaming or planning , but to stop postponing our lives until some future date arrives.

There will always be another deadline , another holiday , another goal to reach.

But there will never again be this moment

So I wonder.......

Maybe the greatest gift isn't having more time

Maybe its learning to notice the time we've already been given.