What are you thinking about right now? Is it that you have to go home and do laundry tonight or pay some bills? Is it that one of your kids has a game later today and you wonder how you’ll manage dinner? Maybe you’re haunted by something embarrassing you did last week or ten years ago, or worried about a deadline at work, the state of the world, or what to wear to an upcoming event. It’s not news that we spend more energy on the past and future than we do in the now.

Wake up and take stock of this moment. Are you inside or out? Is the temperature comfortable or cool or warm? What is the light like: too bright, too dim, just right? Are you alone or with others? Are you stressed or relaxed? Don’t change anything, just notice and maybe take a few slow deep breaths. Now say to your self, “This is a perfect moment.” Say it a few times and allow it to be so.

In our hurried, always seeking something else lives, we let thousands of perfect moments go by unnoticed. We see touching moments in movies and get choked up, but we fail to experience those same moments when they happen to us. Ever been in a restaurant and envied the group in the booth laughing and having fun? How many times have you been in similar situations that barely registered? We’re touched by the sight of parents bathing their babies on TV commercials, yet we rush through bathing our own children in the mad dash to get everything done in the evening before it all starts again tomorrow. We pay for greeting cards and artwork with lovely flowers or picturesque scenes, but we unconsciously pass by real life ones all the time.

Our lives are so much richer than we usually acknowledge. Every day gives us countless perfect moments just waiting to be recognized. Maybe enlightenment is living in the continual consciousness that our very existence is perfect, as are the ever unfolding moments that make it up.