"Wood Tag"

It is a cold, rainy, and dreary morning outside; typical for the middle of February. The birds are very active this morning. They fly from tree to tree, and just as one bird lands upon a branch of a tree, a bird on a nearby branch takes flight only to repeat the same pattern in another tree. And this goes on and on. Sometimes there are so many of them in a crisscross flight pattern at once that there must be one of them who is designated to be the "air traffic controller" or the "It" to prevent crashes.

It reminds me of a game I played as a child called wood tag. Each child playing would tag a tree and there was one child designated to be the "It". Then one child would run from her tree and touch the tree of another child and that child had to go find another tree occupied or not without being caught by the It.

And now, as an adult, my mind plays a similar game. My thought goes from one subject to another briefly touching upon it before my mind leads me off to another and then another. I can occupy myself for a very long time engaged in this childlike game of thought tag. Finally I bring myself back into the present moment and the I and the Me finally alight in the same spiritual space and I am One again in this moment. The Present Moment is my It that tags all my thoughts and brings me back to the Now where I live.

When these thoughts lead me to subjects that are problematic such as "will I have enough money should the appliances go out"; then this is nonsensical use of my mental faculties. Firstly, the appliances have not gone out and are working perfectly (at least considering their age); and secondly, should they cease working it would be at some future time in which case I have no possible way of knowing what my financial status would be. But Now, I know #1 they are working and #2 I have money.

Another example of nonsensical thought patterns that I sometimes engage in is to think about what I did yesterday and what will be the end result of that action? The results of my plans and actions once put into motion are out of my hands largely. Therefore, why waste mental and emotional energy worrying about the possible outcome. Do the right thing in the present moment and then let it go.

And so I watch the birds flutter about from tree to tree, and I am reminded of games that I play intentionally as opposed to those I play unintentionally. I, like the birds, like my flight of activity.