Thoughts

It's often funny the thoughts that creep into your mind - usually at the strangest time or place. I had one of those moments on Friday night at; of all places, the baseball game. I was just watching the game, taking in the bright lights, the crack of the bat, the smell of beer (which I normally hate, but it just goes with baseball...) - you get the idea - and while I was taking all this in, I looked down and the ring on my hand caught me eye.

I was immediately flooded with the thought that at this time last year...really at any of the baseball games I attended last year, I didn't have that ring on my finger. You see, the only reason I have that ring on my finger is because it became mine after my Nanny passed away in February. As I sat watching baseball games last year, the thought never even crossed my mind that in less than a year's time, I'd be sitting at that ball field wearing my grandmother's ring...

I remember my grandmother wearing this ring - her hands soft and warm, the wrinkles creating pathways across her skin, chronicling the life she had lived - and the ring sitting on her finger. I remember how she used to pat my face and tell me that she loved me. Every time I look at this ring, I can so distinctly see it on her hand...and sitting there at the baseball field on Friday night, I looked at that ring and was taken aback by how quickly life can change.

I have a habit of going through life looking for the "next thing". I can sit at a baseball game and think to myself "I can't wait to come to the next game!" When January arrives and it is cold outside, all I can think is "I can't wait for Spring to come..." and every Monday, all I can think about is what I'll do when the weekend comes. I tend to have the mindset that my life will really begin when I finally get one thing or another - but life is happening all around me.

Life changes so quickly and no one is promised even the next minute - seeing my grandmother's ring on my finger Friday night overwhelmed me with the thought that maybe I shouldn't rush to get to this or that - but just enjoy the here and now. If I spend all my time waiting for "the next big thing", I'll miss all the wonderful little things that are happening on a day to day basis. Sometimes the little things add up to a big thing...and sometimes they are just little things, but they still merit enjoyment.

I look at my grandmother's ring and it reminds me to find the happy in the little moments each day. Life can change in the blink of an eye and I'd hate to think I wasted my time not enjoying my life because I was waiting on the next "big moment" to happen.*

*Fully aware the picture is not great - but I felt super awkward trying to photograph my hand, ha-ha!