The Here and Now

Do not carry the burden of the past; do not live in the future.
The only important thing is that one lives in the present authentically
and fully. Whatever your current life is, be the most
you can be by living in the moment.

--Chan Chih--

Think about it.   Days, weeks can pass by while our minds are elsewhere.  We are so busy ruminating of what's to come, that we forget about the present.  For me, these past few days have been spent worrying about my computer. Seems that lately all my monitor wants to do is sleep, and it takes a heck of a lot to wake it up.  The computer will go on, Windows will warm up, and then comes the little message "Monitor going to sleep," and the screen goes black.  I am hoping it is only the monitor; that is fairly cheap to replace. But if it is something else, it may cost a lot of money to fix or replace.  And now,  all I can think about is that there is another snowstorm on the way, and what if the monitor goes completely?  What will I do?  I won't be able to go to work and use that computer, so I will be lost. I joke around about how addicted I am to the computer, but that is not the whole truth;  I am addicted to what I found here in the world of blogs....a wonderful, caring social circle of friends and sisters, and it is without you that I would be lost....but I am diverting...

...Life is so short, too short, and without being aware of what is actually happening to us, is is whizzing by us at lightening speed. How many times have you said, where the heck did the time go?  Or look at your children and wonder how did they ever grow up so fast? (Sigh)  My boys are men now, yet it seems like only yesterday that I was changing their diapers.  How quickly the time flew by!  And all I have is the cherished memories of the moments that passed by, oh so fast.  The world stands still for no one, so it is very important to live in the present, or else we will miss out on so many special moments... 

...Life unfolds in the here and now,  yet I sometimes find myself allowing it to slip away by worrying too much about the future, of events that have yet to occur.  The fact of the matter is that the storm has yet not even arrived, but I not only already have myself snowed in (which, by the, I really don't mind because I LOVE a day off), but snowed in without a computer.  Sadly, these past couple of days I have been so caught up in worrying about something that hasn't ,  and may not ever happen in my life, that I have forgotten to live it.  Those special little moments have been passing by, and I have been missing out on them. Worrying about potential future events makes it impossible to be happy in the present moment.

Yes, it is quite possible that I may have to live without a computer for a few days; and, yes, I may be pretty unhappy, but things happen in life, things beyond our control,  and we have to learn to accept them , or we will miss out on so much else that life has to offer.  Worrying about the snowstorm will not make it go away, just as my worries will not fix my computer. Ruminating on something that might or might not happen in the future negates the happiness available in the moment.  The reality is, life is happening now, only now.  Letting go of the future allows us to bring whatever happiness is available right here and right now into the moment....regardless of what is going on around you.  Accepting life as it is is the first step to living in the present.

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away".--Anonymous