PAMELA BOWMAN – MESA, ARIZONA — I walked out of my house this morning for an early morning swim. I looked down at my feet as they walked and realized those were my feet. They seemed so unfamiliar. New wrinkles on my toes. And the conversation began…with myself.

“It’s 2007.”
“No, it couldn’t be. It feels more like 2001.”
“Sorry, but it really is 2007”
“When did that happen?”
“In a thousand small moments.”

As I drove down my street I saw an older couple out doing their yard work. He had to lean on a chair to mow his lawn. Tough to visualize I know, but harder to actually do it. Around the corner was a younger man doing his yard work. At first I thought it was his son he seemed so young. People out working. Are they enjoying themselves I wonder.

Time passes. I know this. My children are all but grown. I wanted this. My feet are wrinkled. I didn’t anticipate that.

Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways. — Stephen Vincent Benet

Or, Stephen, could it be half full instead?

For eternally and always there is only one now, one and the same now; the present is the only thing that has no end. — Erwin Schrodinger

This is what I am present to at the moment. The here, the now … and my funny toes.