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Getting Ahead of Ourselves

Having spent the better part of my life
trying either to relive the past
or experience the future before it arrives,
I have come to believe that
in between these two extremes is peace.

~Author Unknown~

A recent letter to the editor complained about a prominent Halloween store display in August. Department store catalogs and circulars, TV ads and other advertising also focus on what is coming rather than what is happening now.

Maybe this is all part of the rush to get to the next stage of our lives. Cars sprinting past my house every morning remind me of our rush to live in the future rather than in the present.

Are our lives so empty that we need to look past the current moment? Do we expect the future to be an improvement on the present? We forget that the past is over and the future is just a possibility. We don’t even know if we will be alive when the future arrives.

We can’t change the past and we can’t control or even predict the future. We can manage only the time we have right now and we do have a choice of what we do at this moment. We create our past by how we handle the present moment. We can influence our future by forging a path for our next steps.

So, what can we do about right now? First, we can stop looking backward or forward at least for a little while. We can think about where we are right now. Most of us have heard the expression “living in the moment.” Is this just a saying or is there something to it?

We are wasting our time thinking about what might have been or what could be. That is unless we use our past to guide our current decisions or use our future goals to enlighten our current choices.

When we examiner our past, it is easy to take ourselves to task for not doing things better. “How could I be so dumb?” We sometimes spend quite a bit of time fretting about the future as well. I have met more than a few people whose mantra is, “What if…” People paralyzed by what might happen find it hard to make any decisions at all.

Sometimes the present moment doesn’t call for a decision on our part. We can take a deep breath and enjoy its peace. How many such moments can you remember in your lifetime, or in the past week?

Most of us carry concerns around with us such as health, money or difficult people waiting in our path. But do we have to spend every moment of our lives wringing our hands? If we take time to enjoy a particular moment, our world will not fall apart. Instead, we might find that our moments of reflection refresh us and sometimes give us a new perspective.

Action Steps

  • When was the last time you took a moment just to exist?
  • What was it like?
  • Did the sky fall down?
  • Try scheduling a few moments of peace for yourself.
  • If you enjoy it, make it a habit.

Selection from my book, Navigating Life: Commonsense Reflections for the Voyage, available from Amazon