Grasping the Moment

I thank you all for yesterdays marvellous comments. It is so good to hear how others have grasped the moment and knocked on the doors. I am also happy to hear that so many of you have also got doors waiting to be knocked and ready to offer help when it is asked for because I am day by day aware that I am blessed with such talented friends, who have indeed grasped the moment.

I had a funny conversation yesterday that led my thinking further along those same lines. I was in the newsagent when somebody said to me. “I passed you out running this morning. I was in the warmth of the car, were you not freezing cold out there running?”

Now there is a question that comes from the heart of one who has never had the joy of running. But it was a question that made me think.

When I go running I wear two watches. One that tells me nothing except the time of day and one that tells me what my heart rate is the elevation of ascent, the speed of travel and the distance travelled. It can also tell me exactly where I am just in case I get completely lost. Yes, I know, a bit over the top, but at one time I trained really seriously to race marathons and I just cannot get out of the habit.

Now hear is the interesting thing. Neither of these watches were made by the Swiss. When I was a boy all watches were Swiss made. When the new digital age came along the Swiss rejected it and stuck with the old cog wheels. As a result watch factories all over Switzerland had to close. They had not grasped the moment.

Today as I sit here and write I can hear the rain pounding off the window, there is a strong wind blowing and I am sure it is cold outdoors. How nice it would be to just go run a warm bath and lie in it and read a few chapters of my book. Or fill my coffee cup and read a few more blogs. The more I think about it the more attractive it becomes.

The hardest part of any run is the first five steps, the ones that take me from my back doorway. Once I get moving and the body warms up and I get that wonderful feeling in my legs of moving freely I will love every minute of it. It is a bit like getting into a cold swimming pool where everybody seems to be having fun. Do you remember that feeling?

Today will be full of opportunities to grasp the moment. To make somebody’s day brighter than it might be. To take a step into something new. To make a new friend or to consolidate an old one.

Or to take the comfortable way and do exactly the same as always. Will the last person put out the lights?

Today I am day older and a great many days older than I was when I had my first Swiss watch, but I am not too old yet to,” Grasp the Day.”

I am off to get on my trainers and my two watches and enjoy the rain.



Have a great day.

This blog is linked to my other.  Rain Along The Coastal Path

Grasp The Moment

I had lived on Iona for a year leaving to return to Edinburgh. Here I was hoping to progress my studies further and gain University entrance. I was given the opportunity to join a commune, so I had accommodation all I need now was to find a means of earning enough to survive, (never had I accepted social welfare). I also need to find a way to finish my studies in the time scale. Both problems were within days in the most unexpected way.


Never being one to miss the opportunity of getting to know interesting characters, problem two was solved. Walking along the famous Princess street in Edinburgh with the castle towering above me, I noticed a newspaper vendor making conversation with customers, not something they normally did, and also reading what looked like a weighty tome. I engaged him in conversation and we seemed to strike up empathy for one another. He was a surgeon who had become an alcoholic and here he was selling newspapers. He offered to help with my studies if I helped him to increase his sales by taking some of the papers round the local hostelries. We almost doubled sales in a very short time and my studies progressed in the evenings. He had a wonderful way of imparting knowledge.

A couple of days later we had popped into a large store where we were going to have a meal, macaroni cheese, I can remember it to this day. While in the store I saw a man taking a bundle of bamboo poles out through the back door. I had an idea, and followed him out to find where he was taking them. I managed to come to an agreement that I would collect these poles for a very nominal payment. They were used to roll carpets round for delivery to the store.

Somewhere in my mind I remembered seeing bamboo that had been scorched and had looked like ebony. With a small saw I cut the bamboo into varying sizes of squares and oblongs. With a red hot blade I burned it turning it to the effect I remembered, its own natural oils creating a beautiful sheen. With a red hot knitting needle I made holes at each corner. With the use of leather thong I was able to produce belts, necklaces and bracelets. They sold like hot cakes from the newspaper stand.

What has this to do with Tao? It is a story about grasping the moment. It is about being alive to opportunities that moment by moment come our way. We have to be aware that in every encounter with another fellow human being, there is a person with a story to tell. The artist must be alert and alive to the stimulus of everyday moments.

This is the way of Tao.