As I sat watching my son’s soccer game, I was itching pull out my phone and check Facebook, emails, Twitter, etc.  But in trying to tame the squirrels running about in my head, I am trying, little by little, to become more present in my life.  That means watching the soccer game and only watching the soccer game.

One morning, I heard a story on NPR…actually half heard a story while making the boys lunches.  It was about how someone did a study on parents being with their children but not really because the parents were focused on their cell phones, not their kids.  The commentator threw out a really high percentage of the number of parents in the study that did this.  And yes, while I have done it, but not that often or so I thought…

Thus I vowed that I would watch the entire soccer game.

And you may ask what about the squirrels in my head?  The squirrels are all the thoughts scurrying about…to do lists, haven’t done lists, what is everyone else doing right now? (Ergo, need to check Facebook), how many work emails have I received in the last twenty minutes? etc. etc.  Recently, Time magazine ran a cover story on mindfulness. What I got from the story, amongst other things, is to focus on one thing – the thing you are doing. Like, eating or doing the dishes or watching a soccer game and really experiencing it. So by focusing on one thing, being mindful, helps to tame the squirrels. Or least, I hope so because keeping up with my squirrels is exhausting!!

Did my small foray into mindfulness help with the squirrels?  It’s an ongoing practice. So, I will have to see how it goes as I find other ways to be present.  I will let you know…

However, as we were walking away from the field, Frack quizzed me about the game. I could answer truthfully that I watched the entire game – even when he wasn’t playing.  He was suspicious.  He asked if I was sure I hadn’t looked at my phone whole entire game. I confessed I did look once – during halftime when no one was on the field.  Based on his reaction to my declaration that I watched the whole game, I guess I have been a lot less present than I thought.  Maybe I was more like those parents in the study. Maybe I need to practice a lot more mindfulness…