It is not uncommon to move through a day on a very

strict schedule, moving from event to event merely marking time as a restriction in completing your day’s actions. Move quickly, work quickly, think fast, love quickly. The conditioning of our lives leads us to value brevity in completing all tasks because it is viewed as the most efficient use of time.

Yet the more efficient I tend to be, the less I find real enjoyment in life. Ticking chores off the to-do list today as quickly as possible seems to lead to me ignoring the moment and living for the future. The real problem is that the end never arrives. The only thing we are guaranteed to experience is the exact time we are in right now. Our mind is always guiding us to the future, resulting in anxiety. Thoughts about the past only bring regret. The happiness of life can only be found and enjoyed by living and enjoying the present moment.

Where is This Future?

So often, I have spent large portions of my life planning for tomorrow, and thinking about the future. I went to high school preparing for college, went to college to prepare for a career, and started a career to give myself the money and materials to live a life and prepare for the time when I would retire in 30-35 years. We attach our expectations to the results of each step as well. Yet we never reach the goal line until life is over.

The problem I had with this life plan was what would I be preparing for after that? Death? Eventually, I looked at the scheme and realized that I had missed some of the best parts of life, and they come in every moment. Planning for the future is responsible, and we should all do that, but in making your plan, make sure it is the one you truly want for yourself, not something created for you by someone else. Or you may just be living your life to the tune of someone else’s programming.

Is This Mindfulness?

Each moment is precious. It contains all you are and all you are ever guaranteed to have. Life may be over in the next moment, and there is no way to predict it. Living in a time in the future is a waste and is impossible to do. You are only ever alive, right now, this second at this moment, and each moment provides an opportunity to witness a miracle.

Take your time and look at what is happening, really look—at the emotion of loved ones exchanged each day. The game you are currently playing, the fish you are trying to catch, the love you share, the task you are completing. Each part of the human experience is placed in your path to experience fully and completely. Take your time, drink it in, and enjoy it.

Each moment is valuable and potentially life-altering. Every moment is as unique from one another as every person’s individuality is one of a kind. Notice this in each moment, and life will change for you.

Life isn’t something to get done as quickly and efficiently as possible, and it is something to be savored and experienced in each moment you have.

 

“Loving this world, seeing the beauty in everything.
Appreciating every moment as a beautiful, wholly contained,   pearl of eternal nature, this is the world to me.

A never-ending string of pearls…. every moment is in and of its self a lifetime,
and when we have affection and let ourselves experience life without expectation…
that is when the majesty of the world opens her petals to us…
And welcomes us home.”    ~ Carlos Castaneda

Fear 

Khalil Gibran

It is said that before entering the sea,

a river trembles with fear.

She looks back at the path she has traveled,

from the peaks of the mountains,

the long winding road crossing forests and villages.

and in front of her, she sees an ocean so vast,

that to enter

there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.

But there is no other way.

The river cannot go back.

Nobody can go back.

To go back is impossible in existence.

The river needs to take the risk

of entering the ocean

because only then will fear disappear,

because that’s where the river will know

it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,

but of becoming the ocean.