How a Corn Maze Helped Me Stay Present

I am always surprised where Life Lessons appear. I have been so busy wrapped up in quite a few projects that I knew I was losing my sense of being present. Instead of being ‘in the moment’ my thoughts start drifting off to my To Do list. When that happens life is slipping by and I don’t realize to what extent until some event jars me back into the present.

My daughter and I were attending a youth function at our church this past weekend where 25 teens and a few parents were driving to a local corn maze for the late afternoon and evening. I didn’t know until we arrived that Richardson’s Corn Maze is the largest in the U.S. at 33 acres.

Unlike corn mazes I took my daughter to when she was much younger where you have one entrance and one exit and you just figure out the maze by wandering along. This corn maze has 24 punch card stations located throughout and you are given a map with punch card and you set off to find each of the stations.

The teenagers shot off like bullets into the maze instantly engulfed by it. A few of us adults stood at the entrance wondering which of the 8 different paths we should start with first as we consulted our maps. One of the other mothers and I decided to buddy up and go on the hunt together.

We were so engrossed in the map and deciding which way to go we never felt the need to fill time with idle chit-chat. Working as a team, we celebrated each punch on our card with a loud WhooHooo! We acted like kids hollering and waving our arms furiously to others we spotted others from our group.

We were alive, thoroughly enjoying our outing and each other's company. We commented about the biting wind through the corn field and the beautiful sunset happening before our eyes. We both spotted the full moon rising as darkness descended around us giving us some light in the maze. We laughed as we heard the hoorays from folks in the distance when they found a punch card station.

After one and half hours we got the last punch on our card. We were laughing and smiling when we exited the maze and were thrilled to see bond fires in open pits welcoming us to warm up. It was fun listening to the adventures of everyone else and sharing ours as well.

As we were all piling back into cars for the return trip home; I started thinking about the afternoon. Not once did I think about anything other than the task at hand. I felt a sense of freedom since I wasn’t bogged down with my self-inflicted To Do list. I realized once again that I allowed child-like qualities of wonderment, sense of adventure, being in the moment and doing really fun things being pushed out by my busyness of being an adult.

I made a commitment to myself that I need to intentionally schedule time in my life to be child-like.

Being present is fun!