Living in the Momentous

I just returned from a long trip to visit with friends and family for Thanksgiving.
While driving from the place I used to call home to what I currently call home, I got temporarily stranded in an insignificant truck stop of a little town called Buttonwillow. I put myself up in the cheapest motel room I could find while I waited for morning to purchase a new tire. What I found enlightening was that my one night stay in temporary living quarters was whatever I made of it. While the state of my situation was completely out of my control, the state of my mind was open to the fabrication of my choosing.
My situation was frustrating. I was stuck in a tiny town that I didn't want to be in, with nothing to do. There were 8 channels on TV. The smell of cigarette smoke loomed in the air and the connect-the-dot cigarette burns on the thin race car covered comfortor was an in-my-face reminder of how anti-luxurious my accidental vacation was going to be.
However, my mind was free to visit the past. I often find it hard not to indulge in the sweet nostalgia of happier times long let go. Through this lens, the picture of the present in its anti-climactic-lackluster charm is overshadowed by the older sibling of precedence. Likewise, the past is equally cheated of its truth. In the place of unbiased history, stands the saccharine imposter of wishful thinking, shaking hands and kissing babies on its campaign to impeach the present's potential for greatness. Out of a lifetime of previous moments that could have just as easily been sour shadowy comparisons to the relatively further past, we pick and choose our shiny favorites to look upon with flowery eulogies over their passing greatness. When compared to the best of the past, of course your momentary motel room is dingy.
All too often we ignore the present to plan for better times and greater accomplishments that lay down the road. We bury our bitter distaste of current events with resolute projections of where we would rather be. It's an easy bargain that we make with ourselves in order to accept the unwanted. "Better days are just ahead", we say in a Little Orphan Annie view of Sunnier horizons. Optimism is only a cheap cover up for the existence of pessimism.
Instead I discovered that in this moment of life caught between my past and my future, I was free to live beyond the big picture, in a nomadic state of anything goes. A gyspy of the mind I was free to roam the entire landscape of my known experiences to provide my current moment whatever context I deemed necessary. I was still stuck in a motel room, but I was free to utilize this time to realize that I wasn't stuck at all. This moment became "Blog-worthy" and enlightening.
We often find ourselves literally, or metaphorically stranded with flat tires in moments not of our choosing. Being the sculptors of our own reality, we are free to dwell in the past that we have left behind us or live as pioneers of the future destinations that lay before us. We can wallow in the half-empty beer glasses of buttonwillow motel room moments, or we can realize the full potential of each savory second of life. Knowing that your mind orchestrates the symphony of your perspective makes all the difference between living in the moment, and living in the momentous.

Check out's at 10:00,

MM