The Benefits of Getting Lost

Today my husband and I are celebrating 13 years of marriage.

(thank you, thank you.)

For the first time in a really long time, we went scuba diving together. We used to dive A LOT before we had kids, and we've got over 300 deep water dives under our belts. Our dive belts, that is.

Since we're here in Acapulco for a week, we figured it would be fun to dive on the trip.

As far as diving goes, the dive itself was OK. I was impressed how everything came back to me, and our divemaster was a peach.

And for several minutes on the 2nd dive today, I got lost.

Now I don't mean literally lost (although that has happened to me more than once while diving). I'm talking about getting lost in the moment.

There was a small spotted moray eel who was fully out in the open (usually, you only see their little heads poking out, opening and closing their mouths rhythmically to breathe. But this one was fully out and swimming around, so I got to see him in his entirety.

And I got lost for a few minutes.

I looked up and couldn't see Andy or the divemaster, but quickly caught up to them (visibility was pretty low -- maybe 20-25 feet).

Sometimes on a dive, I "get lost" watching a creature no bigger than the tip of my pinkie finger.

My friend Jen would probably tell me I was meditating. :-) And maybe I was.

What I would call it is being so fully present in the moment, that there are no thoughts, no distractions, nothing to muddy the water (so to speak).

This is a good thing, folks.

The more I do it, the happier I feel. The more smoothly my life runs. The more I appreciate the magnificence and glory of all that surrounds me.

Gratitude is very, very easy to access while getting lost in the moment.

And you don't have to go vacation in Mexico to get lost. You don't even have to get wet. :-)

I invite you to "get lost" today. You'll thank me for it :-)

OK, I'm going to get lost in the pool now. cya.