Stop and enjoy the present moment

Stop and enjoy the present moment, advises Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk. As I am getting ready for my semester, I am taking this advice seriously. Why? Because my job demands so much of me. I am expected to be on my feet attending to a million things. When I feel overwhelmed, I try to breathe and simply focus on the breathing. This helps to center me. Right now, I am enjoying writing this string of sentences about stopping and enjoying the moment.  When I think about the present moment, the moment and the item in it is all there is. Everything outside of this moment fades away. We call this attention. I have been trying to practice this attention in each thing I do. But it is hard sometimes when there is a to-do list beckoning me to hurry in different directions. I try to still this "hurrying" mind and state, "That can wait. We need to breathe right now and take in the present moment and enjoy it." I try to keep saying that to the maverick mind and get it lie down like a dog that has given up begging for tidbits. But, let's see how my current week fares and if I am able to continue to practice attending to the here and the now and enjoying this feeling of being fully in the present.