Back to Work

After spending over 2 weeks at home enjoying little Luke and supporting Andrea, I've now been back at work for 2 weeks. There are 3 facts that occurred to me earlier this week:
1) I now have less time to spend with Luke
2) I now have less time to support Andrea
3) every evening activity is harder to go to because I'm away from my family
Given these facts, I've been living from a mindset of scarcity of late...and become aware of the reality that I don't want Luke to grow up. At least I don't want him to grow up too fast (which seems inevitable given what we keep hearing from everyone). As I think about and focus on this, I spend less time embracing who Luke is in the moment. And that moment - as I've blogged before - is precisely the spot where we can find abundance. A quote that has been sticking in my head of late is "this moment is as perfect as it can be." A quote like that can only come from one experiencing abundance & practicing presence.
The reality for me this week is that I have an invitation in front of me...an invitation to let go of scarcity and embrace abundance. May it be so!

The Gift of Presence

A lot of the reading/studying I've been doing over the last couple of years has talked about the importance of being present. Everything that we need is available to us in the present moment. I found this quite hard to believe and even harder to live out. More often than not, I'm an active guy jumping around from one thing to another - without taking much downtime. It's pretty hard to be present to what's going on around you when you're constantly thinking about what you have to do next.
This pattern of busyness for me has changed, and I find that I really enjoy a pace of life that is slower and more abundant. Andrea has been a huge instigator and encourager on this journey.
Once again, little Lukie has helped me see something in a new light. While holding Luke a day ago, I couldn't help but notice how present I was to him and he to me. Every breath, hiccup, burp, snore (etc) by him was paid attention to by me. Every little movement of his hands, head, legs, or body was met with my touch. It was beautiful - in that moment - to realize that being present to him was the greatest gift that I could give him. And the reality is that it doesn't take that much...just a little intention on my part.
Here are a few more pics of our growing little guy...

A visit with Great-Grandpa Ed

A little mother-son photo opp