Be Present

Welcome back to another episode of A'lil Hoohaa's monthly photo blogging challenge. 

This month’s theme is “Be Present”, and while this challenge is all about sharing meaningful pictures, for once, my post leans a little more into the feeling behind the moment; that elusive art of truly being present.

There’s a lot of talk these days about the concept of “flow,” that mental state where you’re so deeply immersed in an activity that everything else fades away. You lose track of time, self-awareness slips into the background, and there’s this effortless rhythm to what you’re doing. It’s often described as a state of energized focus, joy, and complete presence in the task at hand.

I’ve noticed I tend to enter this flow state during the following activities:

Baking – Especially when I’m inventing things on the fly. For example, I made these trifle-style jar desserts for my dad’s birthday: lemon sponge cake layered with a strawberry cream cheese filling. No strict recipe, just a sense of balance, taste, and fun guiding me.

Writing – As you know, I often join writing challenges like Blogging from A–Z or the quarterly Ultimate Blog Challenge. In fact, the next one is kicking off as we speak. The picture below shows me at my favorite hangout spot while Colin’s at summer practice. By this point, I had already pre-written 28 out of 31 posts - yay me! I even printed out the titles so I could physically shuffle the order and structure of the series. 

Curious what they’re about? Here's the first post.

Exploring – My travel bucket list is long, and while I don’t have unlimited time or money, I do make an effort to explore locally. One recent gem? Konstanz.

Konstanz (in Germany) sits directly on the border with Switzerland. Locals regularly cross for shopping, work, or just a stroll. And now I understand the hype: It has a beautifully preserved old town and a vibrant waterfront along the Rhine River and Lake Constance. On a picture-perfect day like the one I experienced, it’s all too easy to lose yourself in the beauty, wandering through alleyways, soaking up the sunshine, and simply admiring everything around you.

Catching up with a friend – We hadn’t seen each other in several weeks, and if you’d looked at us from the outside, you might’ve guessed exactly what we are: Two exhausted, part-time working moms to teenagers, finally getting a day off.

We treated ourselves to lunch at a lakeside restaurant, and I truly enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere and spending some rare quality time with a like-minded friend.
Unfortunately, I completely failed at taking pictures. This is literally the only one I managed to snap, and not even of the delicious salmon and asparagus salad I had!

Fun fact: The boat actually stops right next to the restaurant terrace. So in case you realize you can’t afford your meal after all, there’s always a jetty escape route just a few steps away. 😉

Mixing Business with Pleasure – A client company was taken over by a new group. In that context, my contact had questions about delayed salary payments. Normally, I’d assist her via TeamViewer, a remote support tool that lets me access the client’s screen so we’re both looking at the exact same thing—and I can click around and do what needs to be done directly on her computer. But the new company had blocked various programs for data protection reasons, without offering any alternatives.

So, we went with the next best solution: I drove to her office, we met for lunch, and then tackled the task together in her meeting room. It was really nice to finally meet her in person, and we were able to concentrate fully on the complex tasks. Highly recommended!

No work pictures here either, but on my way to the restaurant I passed a lively food festival; definitely something I want to come back to and enjoy properly one day.

And finally, a bonus picture at the very top of this post.

We attended a celebration of life for one of Colin’s hockey coaches, Nico, who passed away unexpectedly a few weeks ago from acute leukemia. He was just 35. It’s still hard to grasp.

He was a wonderful person, a fantastic role model with a straightforward nature and a huge sense of humor. We are left with great memories and deep gratitude to have been part of his short but full life.

The invitation to his farewell said people should wear whatever they wanted. “Life’s too short for long faces,” Nico apparently always said, and that became the perfect motto for the get-together of his friends, family, and colleagues from work and sports.

In a way, this whole post sums up how we can make the best of this short life: By focusing on what truly matters and brings us joy and fulfilment.

So... Thank you, P.J., for reminding us of that.

As always, don’t forget to check out the posts from my fellow bloggers participating in this month’s challenge!