Our Minds are like a giant computer bank of memories, facts and data affecting our lives on numerous levels.
As I walk my dog, I notice the gentle breeze moving the fronds on a nearby palm tree. 
I sit on a bench, close my eyes and listen to the breeze in the trees. The sound takes me back to a childhood memory.
I follow the thought’s emotional memory cord back in time.
It is Easter morning and my grandmother awakens me before the sunrise from my peaceful slumber.
I open my eyes, rubbing away the sleep and gaze up at her standing over me.
She smiles and says, “It’s time to go.”
I have been visiting with my grandmother at her home in Florida.
I look out the window. “Go where? It’s still dark outside.”
“To the beach. Come on and get a move on,” she says as she shakes my leg.
As she turns to walk away I roll over, falling back into sleep.
“Lynn get up,” she says, calling to me from her kitchen.
I roll towards her, the aroma from her coffee pot permeates the trailer. “But Nana,” I say, “It’s still dark out.”
“Of course it is,” she says, “How else can you see the sunrise?”
“But Nana, it’s too early.”
“Lynn, let’s get going. I don’t want to miss Easter Service and the sun simply won’t wait for you. Let’s go before we miss it.”
I rise from the bed grumbling. I’m not a morning person, and at nine years of age the last thing I want to do is to get out of bed.
Nana walks outside, waiting impatiently on her patio. She calls to me again.
As I pull my nightgown off and my shirt on, my burnt shoulders protest, reminding me once again that I had too much sun yesterday.
I go out to the patio and walk with her up the sidewalk towards the beach. I am surprised to see so many of her neighbors also up and about so early this morning.
We walk up the path to the crest of the dune, and then the sound of the ocean beckons to me to come on down to the beach.
We walk over to a crowd of people, all standing on the beach looking east across the water… waiting and anticipating the sun.
Sunrise Over the Atlantic Ocean, West Palm Beach, Florida by Adam Jones. Available at AllPosters.com
Then to my utter amazement the sky changes colors – from blackness to deep ink-blue to deep purple.
Then it changes to red and orange as a mound seems to pop up at the horizon. It seems like you can see the wisps of flame dancing in the sky and slowly but surely the sun starts to rise.
During the day, it seems to just linger far away – high up in the sky. But this morning as it rises, the sun looks enormous moving up from the horizon faster than I would have ever thought possible.
There are reds and oranges and now yellow… the sky a masterful watercolor too beautiful to describe.
As a child, I am filled with wonder of the colors unfolding so vividly before my eyes.
This is more amazing than I would have ever thought possible. I look up at my grandmother and smile. I realize that she has given me a great gift – perhaps the best Easter present I have ever received.
And then it’s suddenly morning – a new day. I look at the awe on the many faces standing near us. Then the preacher steps forward and reads to us from the New Testament.
What an amazing morning. The day feels special all day long.
Years later, my husband and I are raising our sons in Florida.
Personal Collection Copyright-Lynn A Thomas
As our two little boys struggle against my gentle prodding, I call to them to awaken. They lay still, hoping I’ll leave their room.
I call to them… “Come on, hurry up … I don’t want you to miss the sunrise.”
“But Mom,” my youngest one pleads, wiping the sleep from his eyes, “it’s too early!”
“Of course it is … how else can you see the sunrise?”
As we walk to the beach, I say a silent thank you to my grandmother. It is because of her gift to me that I will now share something so special with my sons – something that’s greater than they can imagine.
Seated on the bench, I open my eyes – relishing the happiness these memories brought into my vibration. I realize that I was so caught up in the memories – that I was unaware and desensitized to the sounds and movement around me.
My dog tugs at his leash… it’s time to go. As we walk back home, I am struck by the realization that time had passed while I sat on the bench; but I was so caught up in memories running in my mind that - I could have been at the beach with my grandmother, I could have smelled the coffee brewing, I could have heard my son’s laughter. There was no sense of being in the time – now.
As I write this – I am again caught up in reliving the memories — of being on that bench and thinking about years past.
We are either living in the Now moment - or worrying about the future – or engaged in our past…. where are you?
What program is your mind running on at this moment?
Our life unfolds while we are swept into the past or future …our power is only in the Now.
It is by being vigilant stewards of our mind – our emotions – our programs that we live an authentically awakened life.
