Today's quotation:

Many people live as if life were a dress rehearsal for some later date.  It isn't.  In fact, no one has a guarantee that he or she will be here tomorrow.  Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we have any control over.  When our attention is in the present moment, we push fear from our minds. . . . Practice keeping your attention on the here and now.  Your efforts will pay great dividends.

Richard Carlson

Today's Meditation:

Of all the reading and research that I've done about living a full life, the concept that is the most dominant is that of living in the present moment.  As this new year gets going, my hope is that I'm able to learn even better just what it means to live in the present without letting the past or the future interfere with my present experiences.

I am.  Right here, right now.  I may have dreams and desires of how things will be, but those ideas are caught somewhere in the future.  I've been with many people who are so wrapped up in what they want to be "someday" that they don't focus much on what they are or what they are doing right now.  I've watched them go through much surprise and dismay as time rolled on and they haven't become what they were sure they would be.

There are many things that have happened in everyone's past that could cause them to be resentful and unhappy if they let them.  But if I were to focus on what was, it's very hard to see what is.  I've known people who are able to talk only of their pasts-- every conversation is about what happened in the ago.  They aren't able to learn too well the lessons that life is giving to them right now because their minds are still on yesterday or yesteryear.

"Now is the only time we have."  That's a truth that we would do well to remember constantly.  It's a truth for each one of us who lives on this planet right now.  I don't want to live my life focusing on what I will be, or what I was.  I am.  Here and now.

Here I am.  What am I going to do with that?

Why is it hard to live in the past or future?

How can we learn from our past mistakes and aspire to become more in the future by living in the right now?

What kind of beautiful things full of potential are within your reach right now?

I've stopped thinking all the time of what happened yesterday.  And
stopped asking myself what's going to happen tomorrow.  What's happening today, this minute, that's what I care about.  I say:  What are you doing at this moment, Zorba? . . . I'm kissing a woman.  Well, kiss her well, Zorba!  And forget all the rest while you're doing it; there's nothing else on earth, only you and her!

Nikos Kazantzakis

more thoughts and ideas on now

All contents © Living Life Fully, all rights reserved.