Live Now

Taking a moment to spill some words of wisdom

I know it's a strange title "Live Now." When else are we supposed to live? Now, of course. But many people spend a lot of time (that precious commodity for getting what you want) in the past.......remembering things that happened, and being upset over them.

Other people spend a lot of time in the future, worrying about this, that and something else....most of which probably will never come to pass. This is called fear! (F.E.A.R. = False Expectations Appearing Real.) Some people are bi-timers. They can say "bye" to the present and go zipping off into both the past and the future simultaneously.

What happened to the moment? No don't answer that! You have to go back in the past to do so. What about this moment? Yeah Oops. Gone! It's easier to pick up quicksilver with no thumbs than to capture the moment.

So don't capture it. There's nothing to capture. It's all here...in the present, although perhaps slightly unaccounted for. There's nothing to struggle with. When you come back from the past or the future, the present will be here, waiting.

It won't be the same present, of course. As Heraclitus observed around 500 B.C. (talk about the past!), "You could not step twice into the same river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you." Thus it is with time.

The irony is that there's nowhere to go. It's all here, now, in the moment The further irony is that you can't go anywhere, even if you tried. If you're in the "past" or the "future," you're not in those places at all. You're thinking and feeling about them......but you're just thinking and feeling about the past and future right now. In the present.

We are, thus, always in the present, no matter what we do, no matter where we "go". If someone insists, "Come present!" tell them, "I was present....with my thoughts. If you do something more interesting than my thoughts, I'll pay attention to you." That should bring them present!