Enjoying the present moment – The story of the snail

Snail metaphorThe other day I was searching for a bed time story and just randomly picked a book. The story was entitled something along the lines of ‘Invitation for coffee and cake by the racing snails’. It was about a normal little snail which one day was invited for coffee by the racing snails; the only problem was that the ordinary snail was very slow and enjoyed doing everything slowly. The meeting point with the faster snails on the other hand was far away. Nevertheless, our little snail decided to accept the invitation and to ‘hit the road’ directly in order to arrive on time two days later.

On its way it passed through a field of fresh salad and found that it had never seen such great salad in its life. It hence stopped to eat. Then it was tired and found a perfect place to sleep and so on. At first it thought: “oh no, I am going to be late” but then it simply decided to enjoy the present moment and everything it saw along the way.

In the end it arrived (obviously) too late where it was supposed to be and all the other snails were long gone already. The cake was eaten and the coffee can empty. A little bug walking by wondered why the snail was looking so happy and content although there was nobody left at the party and thus questioned it. The snail simply responded that it did not matter as now it would have all the time it needed to enjoy the journey back and do everything slowly as it was used to.

I must say that I found this story excellent as it is a wonderful metaphor illustrating how much nicer it can be to walk mindfully through your life, enjoying every single moment of it and living here and now, instead of running without noticing what surrounds you, as small as it might be! We should enjoy our journey through life and stop striving for something far away in the future. We have the opportunity to be happy and fulfilled here and now and it is up to us to decide to live our lives that way.

What about you? Are you living the present moment or just passing through your own life?

Have an excellent Sunday!

Jenny

10 Replies to “Enjoying the present moment – The story of the snail”

  1. Maurice A. Barry

    LOL–something I have to keep reminding myself. Now today, here on the northwest Atlantic we had 25 C all day (it’s now around 9PM and about 22 C) and a trip to the top of Signal Hill rewarded me with a fine view of a pod of humpbacks playing around in the ocean. Oh yeah–today it was easy to be in the moment :>)

    • Jenny Ebermann (bxljenny)

      Wow, that sounds amazing! We don’t have that here but I remember when I was living in Canada, I enjoyed very much going whale watching… makes me want to go there again! Thanks for reading and have an excellent day!
      Jenny

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  3. Mid-

    this is such a lovely story for someone who always sees herself as a turtle and/or a snail. thanks, Jenny.

    • Jenny Ebermann (bxljenny)

      Hi there, thanks so much for your nice comment! I think that enjoying every stop and moment in this journey which is our life is really what we are here for, no matter what others say and do! Being mindful is something so valuable and yet so simple, I always wonder why not more people see it and engage on this path! Have a great day, Jenny

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