It is heartbreaking how much of our lives we miss out on.

I woke a few mornings ago to start my walk at 6:15 a.m. It was a brisk morning, the first such morning in many months.

I was immediately hit with the coolness of the air in my nostrils and the beauty of a dark sky blanketed with stars. Just peeking out beneath it all was a rosy line of sunrise. I stopped to take a picture, then continued on my walk.

At some random point, I suddenly realized that I had been lost in thought over a storyline about the day ahead. I took a deep breath and inhaled the morning air, intending to appreciate the walk … and almost immediately skipped off into some other story line in my mind.

Thank heavens for the cows.

We live in a neighborhood that is bordered on one side by a farm, and on that farm are cows. (E, I, E, I, O.)

Every once in awhile, you can hear a cow saying hello, moo-ing its sentiments to the world around it. Thankfully, this was one of those mornings.

The sound of the “moo” immediately snapped me back into the moment, and the beautiful sensory experience of the walk came alive once more. This time, with the “moo” echoing in my mind, I stayed with the ever-lightening sky, the brilliant colors, the crisp breeze. I felt the fullness of the walk and, because of that, was filled with gratitude.

—

The mind thinks. Thoughts wander. It is what our beautiful brains are designed to do.

We train with meditation to find the stillness between or underneath or above those crazy thoughts, to allow ourselves to know the thoughts without getting swept away by them.

But distraction happens. (A lot.)

In those moments, it is so nice to have a reminder to pull us back into the full experience of the moment. Be it a friend who reminds us to be mindful, an image we post for ourselves on a wall, a timer set on the phone, ….

or a cow.

Here’s to returning to this moment, again and again and again.

Moo.

The Mindfulness Of A Moo