PAST, present, FUTURE

Happy Monday (or as happy as Mondays can be)!  By the time I got home from work, I wasn’t as hungry as I usually am – surprise, surprise.  This afforded me the time to make a meal that involved some prep work.  I scoped out the ingredients in my tiny kitchen and decided on pasta.  Tonight’s feature included spinach, zucchini, yellow squash, chickpeas, spicy marinara sauce, and goat cheese – random but hearty and delicious!  Not only did this meal fill me up, but it was super easy to make.

With the pasta boiling off to one side, I sautéed the zucchini and squash in some olive oil.  After a few minutes, I added the spinach and let it wilt.  I then seasoned the veggies with some salt, pepper, and garlic powder (all to taste).  Next, I added the chickpeas and let everything cook through before adding the sauce.  Once the sauce was in, I taste tested and added paprika for some extra heat.  Once the pasta was al dente, it was incorporated with the veggies and sauce.  I topped off my serving with some goat cheese and devoured (just kidding) ate everything one bite at a time…verrrry slooowly!  [Side note: Slow Down Challenge is going well, and I will post more tomorrow.]

PAST, present, FUTURE

I was reading a few blogs today, and I realized that not everything I post needs to be super positive.  Life’s not perfect, and while I don’t ever want to be Ms. Negative Nancy Blogger, I do want to be real.  With that being said, one of the things that I have always struggled with is living in the past and the future but never in the present.  I can’t imagine I’m the only one out there that’s like this, but oftentimes I find myself constantly wanting to go back in time or jump ahead to some future time when “everything will be perfect.”  When I find myself heading in either of those directions, I try to remind myself that I can’t control the past or the future, but I have full control over my thoughts in the here and now.  Like a lot of things in life, this is easier said than done.  Change and uncertainty have never been my forte, but I like to think that I’m getting better at dealing with both.  But there are always those times when a feeling of sadness washes over me because I am stuck in my own memories or in my thoughts about some unknown future. 

After seeing all the devastation in Japan and hearing all the heartbreaking stories on the news, I’ve been thinking about how precious our time on Earth really is.  I can’t even begin to imagine the thoughts running through the minds of those that were and continue to be affected by the earthquake and tsunami.  All I know is that I now want to work harder at getting out of my own thoughts and focus more on living in the present because in the end, it’s all we can really do, and it’s all we really have.

Do you ever find yourself stuck in the past or zooming ahead to the future?  How do get your mind to focus on the present?