whole-hearted living

Hello beautiful,​

Sitting with this second full moon of the month — what we call the blue moon, something rare that only comes around every couple of years — I’ve found myself reflecting on how fleeting and precious life really is.

There’s been an ache in me lately.
A longing..
to soak in all the special moments of life.

Because when you think about it, every moment is entirely unique. This exact morning, this exact breath, this particular light through the trees, the sound of birds outside my window — none of it will ever happen in quite the same way again.

And yet, how often do we actually pause long enough to feel it?

How often are we somewhere else entirely — lost in the running list in our heads, replaying the past, worrying about tomorrow, or distracted by the constant stimulation pulling us in every direction?

As I sit here this morning, looking out at the trees and listening to the birds, I notice a deep longing to connect more fully with life.

To be here.
To feel what’s here.
To inhabit my body more completely.

There’s something deeply grounding about presence — about being with what is instead of constantly moving away from it.


Presence is something we have to relearn.

Somewhere along the way, as a culture, we drifted from intimacy with life. We moved away from growing our own food, knowing the rhythms of the seasons, sitting on porches, noticing the sky, listening deeply, simply being.

Life has become something closer to a pinball machine.

We bounce from thought to thought, feeling to feeling, memory to memory. A piece of old pain gets activated. A distraction pulls us sideways. A notification interrupts. We ricochet through our days, often unaware of how much is quietly pulling us away from this moment.


Wholehearted living.


Not chasing some perfect version of ourselves.
Not getting life exactly right.


Instead, living from our whole heart by fully arriving in our life.


Feeling it.
Being present enough to notice it.
Allowing joy, grief, beauty, ache, uncertainty — all of it — to belong.


I am reminded of this vivid memory from my sixth birthday. I am sitting in a recliner while my mom stands in the kitchen doing dishes, and I'm telling her I don’t want to turn six. I love being five and I don’t want it to change.


And in her gentle way, she tells me, “Honey, life keeps moving forward.”


This may be the first time I realized that presence matters, because life keeps moving.


The seasons change.
The moon cycles.
We grow older.
This moment passes.


I think that wholehearted living is simply learning how to love life enough to actually be here for it while it’s here.


So, stop running the race for a moment.
Step out of the pinball machine.
Choose a different rhythm.
And come back to now.

❣️

Let go of the shore and trust the currents of life to take you there.


In Light,

Misty