Stepping onto the elliptical this morning to program it for my workout, the first information to be entered was the user’s age. Since the user was me, that meant pushing the up-arrow until it hit 66. While advancing the number, I was momentarily distracted by a message coming in on my phone. When I looked back at the display it had bypassed my age, landing me at 77 years old. I quickly pushed the down-arrow to input the correct age, but looking at a number that won’t be mine for another 11 years shook me.

It happened in a flash.

It happened in the blink of an eye.

It happened because I wasn’t present to what was in front of me. Which is exactly what will happen in real life if I don’t choose to be present to the here and now.

The up-arrow is advancing and while we may not be able to stop it, we can choose to stay with it every step of the way.