This morning, as I sat outside, a nice cool breeze moved across my head, neck, and face. It felt so good. Nothing dramatic. Nothing unusual. Just one of those simple things I have experienced thousands of times and probably taken for granted almost every one of them.

But this morning I noticed it, and as I sat there enjoying it, I had another thought. That exact breeze will never touch me again.

It came across me, moved on, and was gone. Maybe it moved through the trees behind me. Maybe it crossed the street. Maybe someone else felt that same breeze against their face a few seconds later without ever knowing I had just felt it too.

Then, almost out of nowhere, sirens from an emergency vehicle blared maybe a hundred feet away from me. For a moment, I completely forgot about the breeze. My attention shifted immediately to the sirens. What had felt peaceful just seconds earlier was still happening, but I was no longer paying attention to it.

The breeze had not changed. I had.

That convicted me a little because I know there are times when I do the exact same thing with life. I can wake up grateful, enjoy a quiet morning, have a good conversation with my wife, and feel genuinely thankful for the life God has given me. Then one frustrating thing happens.

The dog makes a mess on the floor. Something does not get done. A conversation does not go the way I hoped. Someone says something that rubs me wrong. And just like that, I can allow five difficult minutes to change the posture of the next five hours.

I wish I could say I rarely do that, but I probably do it more than I would like to admit. I have allowed one frustrating moment to affect the way I speak to the next person. I have carried one disappointment into a conversation that had absolutely nothing to do with it. I have become so focused on what was going wrong that I stopped noticing everything that was still good.

The siren passes, but sometimes I keep hearing it. Meanwhile, the breeze is still there waiting to be enjoyed.

Maybe the real conviction for me this morning was not that there have been too many sirens. We all have them. Maybe it was realizing how many breezes God has continued sending while I have been listening to the noise.

The last several months have been tiring in a lot of ways. We have experienced pressures in our personal and professional lives, and days where I have felt stretched thinner than I would like. And like I often do, I always start filling the gaps.

When something was not getting done, I stepped in. When someone needed help, I helped. When something started slipping, I grabbed it. At some point, though, I have to admit that stepping into every gap may say as much about my need to control the outcome as it does about my willingness to help.

That is not easy for me to admit.

What is also hard to admit is that while I have been paying attention to what has been difficult, there has been an incredible amount of good happening too.

There are people on our team who care deeply. There are people who are learning and growing. There are clients who trust us. There is work that still gives me purpose. There are opportunities I prayed for years ago that I now sometimes rush through because they have become normal.

And outside of work, there is even more. I have a wife I love working alongside, and I get to come home with her every day. I have children I am so very proud of. I have four amazing grandchildren who can make me smile almost instantly. I have people in my life who care about me. I have mornings like this one, with a cup of coffee, a little quiet, a cool breeze, and through all of it, God is still there.

None of those things disappeared because something difficult happened. I just stopped noticing some of them for a while.

That may be one of the things I need to get better at. Not ignoring the sirens, because they matter. Problems need to be addressed. Difficult conversations need to happen. Responsibility still matters.

But not everything that deserves my attention deserves my entire day.

Sometimes I tell myself I am just learning from experience, when really I may be expecting today to go wrong because something went wrong yesterday. And when that happens, I can start listening for the next siren before it ever comes.

What is going to go wrong next? What problem am I going to have to solve? What am I going to have to fix?

Before long, I can become so focused on what might happen that I stop noticing what is already happening right in front of me.

I recently read Oswald Chambers writing about the testing of faith and the tension between common sense and faith. Common sense naturally looks backward. It gathers what has happened before and prepares us for it to happen again.

Faith does not ask us to forget what happened. It simply refuses to believe that yesterday gets the final word.

I need that reminder.

Faith is not believing everything will stay the same or that every problem will disappear. Maybe faith is trusting that God will still be good even when life unfolds differently than I expected.

And perhaps that is what the breeze was reminding me of this morning.

That exact breeze is gone now. I cannot call it back, and I cannot relive this exact morning. Strangely, that does not make me sad. It makes me want to pay closer attention to the life I am actually living.

Scripture tells us that God’s mercies are new every morning. Maybe part of receiving those mercies is simply noticing them while they are here.

The cup of coffee. Someone’s laughter. A conversation you did not rush through. The people you love. Work that still matters. A chance to begin again.

And yes, there will be sirens and they deserve our attention when they come.

I just do not want them to make me forget that the breeze is still there too.

A Practice to Cultivate

Today, notice something you normally might hurry past. A breeze across your face. Your spouse’s voice from another room. A child laughing. Someone sitting across the table from you. A quiet moment you normally would have filled with something else.

Receive it while it is there, and if a siren comes, give it the attention it deserves. Just be careful not to give it more than that.

The breeze may still be there, waiting for you to notice it again.

‘Well Rooted’ is a column written by Jeremy Elliott for the Great Bend Tribune. Elliott owns a lawncare business and lives in the Great Bend area.