When we are working hard to pursue a long-held dream, our thoughts and energy become consumed by our efforts. So consumed that we can become oblivious to what’s going on around us or even to those we love dearly. We forget to live in the moment, to cherish where we are right now, and to embrace whatever we are facing as part of the larger journey of our lives.

I experienced this lesson in a very real way recently, after my mother fell in our home, hit her head, and ended up with a concussion that sent her to the hospital and then to a rehabilitation center.

After a month-long stay, Mom came home from the rehabilitation center on Saturday.

Sunday, we spent the day sitting on the deck of our house, drinking coffee, reading, listening to classical music, and savoring the beautiful Colorado weather.

What we were really celebrating, of course, was that Mom was finally home after a month in the hospital and then a rehab facility.

As we sat, doing normal things like drinking coffee, I realized what it means to live in the moment.

This was the best day I’d had in a very long time. It was made more special because I allowed myself to truly enjoy it . . . I lived right there in the moment.

I didn’t think about the future, the past, what will happen with Mom’s health, or with my fledgling writing career. Which is what I usually do. I wake myself up early in the morning, worrying about both real problems and imagined catastrophes.

I am the personification of Eeyore.

But, on Sunday I allowed myself to think no further than the moment we were experiencing right then.

What I discovered is that this might be the key to happiness.

I’m not advocating shutting one’s mind to planning for the future or working hard when a project needs to be completed. However, there is also a time and place to just relax, recharge, and enjoy the company of those we love.

And when we are in that place, our experience will be more memorable if we are fully present, if we give our full attention to those we are with or the task at hand. Especially if that person is someone we treasure, and the task is renewing the mind. PEACE.

When is the last time you felt fully present, not distracted by work or other concerns, when you were with your family or loved ones? In the coming week, can you carve out a few hours to sit down to dinner as a family, to take a relaxing walk with a parent or child, and commit to be fully attentive to that person while you are together?

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

~1 John 4:9-11

This essay was originally published in God Loves Your Dream, a book of inspirational essays. Get your copy on Amazon.com.