Carpe Diem

I'm very future-focused. Usually, I'm so busy planning for whatever is going to happen next, I don't take the time to appreciate what's actually happening now. Living in the moment is something I try to do better, but I'm often unsuccessful. Pascal is more skilled at staying centered in the "now", which is one of the reasons I fell in love with him. It's also why I love to travel. I get so wrapped up in discovering a different place and absorbing the new sensory experiences, I don't even have to think about staying in the present. I'm there, fully focused on the moment. That's when I really "get" it, the cliché about the present being a gift. 

Yesterday, we closed South 'n France (June 19-June 29) for our first vacation together since starting the business three years ago. We are traveling to upstate New York for my little brother's wedding and then on to Quebec City, Quebec. For the next ten days, I'll be sure to unwrap each day as a precious, golden gift. Until I return, I leave you with this poem I found tucked in the pages of one of our recipe books last week. I copied it from a "Poetry In Motion" sign on a New York City subway train about five years ago. It now resides on my desk as a reminder of the lesson I've forgotten so many times since then:

Exhaust the little moment.
Soon it dies.

And be it gash or gold
It will not come

Again in this identical
disguise.

-Gwendolyn Brooks