Accept the Invitation When It's Offered

There is such a pressure to produce, to squeeze results from every moment. To be effective and optimal. But what can you do today to feel alive?

Yesterday I walked in the dew with my shoes off. I did this to feel alive, but it almost didn’t happen.

You see, after I eat breakfast, I’m on my way upstairs to get ready for work. My wife asks if I would see her garden. She’s been pulling and planting for days now, her vegetable garden in our backyard.

It won’t take much for me to visit her garden. But I hesitate—I’m already thinking of the work tasks to tackle when I sit down at my desk. They are so many, and I want to get to work. I’m about to decline her offer but then think, “What do I really need right now?”

• Do I need to start working or do I need to visit her garden?

• Won’t I always have work to do and won’t this moment pass if I don’t take it?

So, I decide to visit her garden. She is smiling with delight. I slide off my socks and step onto the sparkling grass, still wet with dew and twinkling in the sun. I feel the wet beneath my feet, the blades between my toes.

I hear birds chirping, but also the stillness of the morning. The sun warms me, I feel alive.

My wife, beautiful even in morning, shows me around the garden. She points out where she has planted beets, lettuce, and carrots; basil, peppers, and squash; tomatoes, peas, and green beans; dill, cilantro, and potatoes. Wow, all of this in my backyard.

I close my eyes, drink in the moment. Again, I feel alive.

Fast forward to today. Gray clouds, rain, not the morning we had yesterday. Work tasks still to do, work tasks always to do. I’m so glad I visited my wife’s garden in the sun.

There is such a pressure to produce, to squeeze results from every moment. To be effective and optimal.

But what can you do today to feel alive? What can you do to push aside the relentless tasks that will refill when you get them done? What can you do that recharges you?

What garden can you visit, what wet grass to walk upon, what person to linger with?

This moment is the only one like it and tomorrow may come the clouds. If an invitation comes your way to walk in the sun and notice the birds, will you accept it?

Will you walk in the dew with your shoes off?

I believe there’s a greater chance that as you may lay dying time from now, you would rather have walked in the dew with your shoes off than done that extra work thing.