Namaste
“The clock is running. Make the most of today. Time waits for no man. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it is called the present,”
― Alice Morse Earle, Sundials and Roses of Yesterday: Garden Delights Which Are Here Displayed in Every Truth and Are Moreover Regarded as Emblems
Recently a friend was speaking to me about his baby daughter –she must be five months old now. Mark is just besotted. He was talking about how absolutely everything fascinates her. He held the cat so she could pat it. She stroked the cat and with a look of total focus and concentration. He was saying how poignant it was to watch his child so completely immersed and it reminded him of how much he takes for granted and how much we stop being in the moment. We are told this all the time—that we are in the past, or in the future, but rarely in the moment.
That conversation made me recall my daughter at six or seven months of age, sitting and just watching a candle flame, mesmerised. I also remembered her looking at drops of water from the tap with utter fascination and absorption and trying to catch them. At the time I stopped and sat really looking at those drops of water with her, thinking how beautiful they actually were. Life takes over—the next thing to get done, the next job. These are mostly ticked off the list but then with no time taken to enjoy the moment.
Awareness or mindfulness, to be present in the present and to notice, requires vigilance on our part. It is so easy to constantly go over incidents and situations from the past and to draw the projected fears and concerns of the future into the present. Yet neither of these serves a purpose, other than maintaining the fear we feel. If either the past or the future fills us with excitement and joy and we are able to hold that in our present, then that is a powerful place for us to create!
If I asked fifty people what they want in life the answers would be as varied as the people. From health and well-being to a variety of material things, to partners, children, grandchildren. But if I pressed further and asked why they would want whatever it is they want, the answer would universally be, “because it would make me happy”. Yet the power to be happy resides within us at all times. We do not need to wait for something to show up to make us happy. If what we really want is to feel happy, then what actually stops us from making that our pursuit?
Being in the moment is to be fully engaged in where you are and in what you are doing. This is the best and easiest way to find that internal happiness. If you are having a conversation with someone be fully engaged and present. If you are making or eating a meal, doing some exercise—whatever it is you are doing—give it your undivided attention. Try it for a week or two and watch the shift in you.
Love and joy to you
Ranjani
