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And that was when I was 9 or so years old . Every couple of years , I go through a similar phase . I don ’ t cry over death anymore but I do cry over the periods of life that are passing me by . I cry over the happy memories that I have in my life . Heck , even writing that is making me cry while I am writing this .
I am 35-years old . Life is going by like a bullet train . Devon was telling me about a presentation she attended yesterday in which the presenter said that a recent study showed that people were only present in the moment 53 % of the time . Funny , I had recently read about the same study online and thought to myself : Phewwwy !
First of all , that is an impossible study to undertake . People will always give the answer that they think is the most appropriate and they will project ( like they all do on FB ) the perfect life . Second , I know how much I struggle BEING present and this is something I know and study a lot .
All of the major religions had at their core the ability to be able to be in the present moment . So simple , yet , so hard .
If you are within a decade of my age , then this will be relevant to you .
It feels like only yesterday that I was in high school , playing basketball . I remember the last game I ever played in high school in which I was carried by my friends off the court . I have that photo at my parent ’ s house somewhere . A moment that will always be frozen in time in my mind . I often visualize that scene in the early mornings before visualizing my future .
I think back to growing up in my old neighborhood , the one in which my parents still live . I think about all the stick-ball games we played with that core group of boys . I think about playing Man-Hunt late into the night . I think about carving my initials with my best friend at the time into the freshly laid side-walk ( which is still there by the way ).
Those were endless summers and times of innocence .
I reminisce about the last summer of baseball I ever played . I was 16-years old . I didn ’ t give a hoot about playing high school baseball , but I didn ’ t want to give up the memories of playing for the township little league and senior league . I was very aware of playing in the state tournament , trying to make it to regionals and the fact that my ‘ little league ’ career would soon be a thing of memory . Yes , I cried when we lost that final game .
Man , this is tough to write ( a wise man recently told me that if you can ’ t cry , you can ’ t truly write ).
It seems like just last week that I was about to graduate high school and then I did graduate . But it didn ’ t matter because I had one last summer to spend with my boys . We went to watch American Pie , which was timely like you wouldn ’ t believe . That represented ‘ us ’. I still have a special place in my heart and spirit for that movie because it instantly transports me to that period of my life .