I am a bit of a control freak.

This has served me well in my life ... at times.

And it has also caused me to ruin many a moment; to miss things because I am disappointed or frustrated with how reality is playing itself out.

This makes me sad.

So, I've been thinking a lot about what it means to live fully present in each moment, with open hands, open heart, open mind. No trying to rip control from the universe. No more judging, insisting on labeling each moment as "good" or "bad."

What might my life look like if I stopped trying to force things to go my way?

How might all the small, ordinary, daily moments have more meaning, more richness if I give up coercing, manipulating and pushing?

I pulled out a book I bought over two decades ago - Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn - and it is so helpful on this journey.

For instance, his short chapter entitled "Letting Go" is something I have been dwelling in all week.

Here is what Zinn writes,

"Letting go means just what it says.

It's an invitation to cease clinging to anything - whether it be an idea, a thing, an event, a particular time, or view, or desire.

It is a conscious decision to release with full acceptance into the stream of the present moments as they are unfolding.

To let go means to give up coercing, resisting, or struggling, in exchange for something more powerful and wholesome which comes out of allowing things to be as they are without getting caught up in your attraction to or rejection of them ...

It's akin to letting your palm open to unhand something you have been holding on to."

I wonder how many moments you might be missing because, like me, you find yourself judging each moment rather than simply noticing it, experiencing it, paying deep and close attention to it, actually LIVING it.

Might we all try today, as a gift to God, to let our palms open - literally or figuratively - as each moment unfolds in front of us, sometimes boring, sometimes frustrating, yes ... but also, sometimes joyful, sometimes beautiful, sometimes unbearably sweet. 

Each moment a gift.

Each moment one-of-a-kind.

Each moment with something to teach us, or give us, or say to us.

Try it. Open your hands.

More on this in the coming days...