30 September 2019

Now

Why should we live with one foot in yesterday and the other foot in tomorrow? Surely, what really matters is today - the here and now. In the past, we all had times of happiness when life was vibrant and full and we can all dream about similar times in the future. But what about today? What about now? 

Now is not just some dull waiting room. Now is where true life dwells. It is precious and it deserves to be relished, treasured, fully lived. And yet so often we squander "now" as though it was just a journey between stations. It isn't. We can find happiness and delight in "now". Now can glow in a way that puts both yesterday and tomorrow into forgettable shade.

It isn't easy to translate such an outlook into everyday reality. Past and Future keep distracting us from what should matter more - The Present, today, the here and now. Listen to the sounds of life. See the sky and the earth. Grasp "Now" while it is happening because there will never  be another day quite like this one.

34 comments:

  1. Wise words Mr Pud! I shall stop looking forward to my birthday later this week, and enjoy today!! ( Though that might depend on how my grandson decides to behave when I get him home from school !)

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    1. If he misbehaves, spank his buttocks and enjoy the moment! I wonder how old you are going to be...my guess is sixty!

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    2. If only I was allowed to spank his bottom.! That is the problem.....gone are the days when my boys were young, and a short sharp slap on the legs told them they had gone too far! This one goes too far and some!!
      60 ? I wish !

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    3. You need to employ clever distraction techniques. After all, you are cleverer and wiser than him.

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  2. This is a lesson that Tom and myself have learnt the hard way. Looking back generally makes us miserable thinking of all the things we used to do and when we look forward we do not like what's ahead.
    How right you are to live in the now.
    Briony
    x

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    1. Sleep and wake to simple joys like having breakfast, showering, looking out of the window and stealing a kiss.

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  3. Too true. Especially concerning health, which we take for granted. Actually health is all that matters in the end.

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    1. It's only when ill-health comes to visit us that we fully realise how marvellous it is to be blessed with good health.

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  4. I don't really think like that. I know most of my stuff is about how things were but its written in the "now" to enjoy again rather than regretting anything lost. Although it might not be healthy if it was the only thing I did. Must get a move on now. Got things to do.

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    1. Enjoy your aerobics class Tasker! And remember your elasticated headband!

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  5. Entirely dwelling in the past or only looking towards the future are certainly both unhealthy, but thinking back or ahead every now and then do not harm.
    We can learn from our own pasts (or those of others, even of whole nations), and the occasional forethought can avoid running into trouble in what will then be our Now.
    All things considered, I very much agree with you, and have been practising this for at least the past 10 years of my life successfully.

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    1. I am not saying do not consider the past and the future but try not to allow them to squeeze the present into a kind of insignificance.

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  6. Be Here Now. Wonderful advice, Neil. I think of this often.

    I hope you're having a great day right this very minute!❤

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    1. I am reading your comment NOW! And it's making me feel valued. That can't be bad.

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  7. I think NOW is part of the process. All time is divided into 3 parts. Past Present Future. Yesterday Today Tomorrow. Birth Life Death. Often factoring in the past and future can help us plan or make the most of the present. But you are right, if we spend too much time on Parts 1 and 3 we shall never enjoy part 2.

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    1. Part 2 is so often sidelined. I know that I am as guilty of that as anyone. It is surely better to live than to wallow.

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  8. Good advice and simple to understand yet sometimes hard to do.
    That is one of the problems with depression and anxiety. Depression makes you want to live in the past- dredge up all of that which has brought you to the dark place while anxiety makes you fearful of what comes next. They are the thieves of happiness, peace, and contentment. But one can try, no matter what, to be mindful.

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    1. That's it Ms Moon. We can try to make "now" matter and be mindful of its potential value and import.

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  9. The better the now , the better the yesterday and tomorrow.

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    1. That's a great aspiration Red.

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    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  10. I am decidedly against living in the "now". It's a flicker of consciousness, a construct that makes us feel bad about being creatures with brains that remember and forecast. I actually think the slogan, Live in the Now, is just another way to make people feel as if they are not living life correctly, as if we need more reasons to criticize ourselves.

    Not to poo-poo your thesis, Mr. Pudding, but the experience of "now" lasts a few seconds at most, while the memory of "now" lasts for years and years. The amazing sunset I saw last night, drinking champagne on the shore of Long Island Sound as the Jewish New Year began, with my sweetie and a few friendly dogs who were playing on the beach, lasted about 30 minutes, in intervals of 12 seconds of "now" that came and went. But here it is, 18 hours later, and I am still luxuriating in it, in my memory.

    Exhorting people to live in the "now" is the worst kind of coersion. Live in whatever tense you want to, it's all made up anyway, right? Isn't time itself just a way to organize the chaos of existence?

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    1. Thank you for your reflections Vivian but I doubt that this is the "worst kind of coercion". To begin with - it wasn't coercion at all. I was just sharing a feeling and as you can see from other visitors' comments, it chimed with them.

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    2. Vivian, have an up vote or many.

      Whilst, of course and by necessity, we live in the "now" people who exhort us to do so forget that the moment is fleeting. That the moment is already the past. They forget that we are the sum of all those PAST "now" moments.

      U

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  11. I wish I could live in the here and now
    But I can't

    Nicely written YP
    Xx

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  12. True...but one's memories are important...as are the hopes and dreams...and the plans to achieve them...plans which have their role in the "now".

    This is when the ability to multi-task becomes very useful, and should be utilised.

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    1. I agree entirely with your first reaction Lee but many of us, myself included, can get things out of perspective in such a way that "Now" is greatly diminished.

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  13. I agree wholeheartedly with you, YP. It's easier said than done, but worth trying for. I am guilty of letting worry and anxiety about things like medical or dental appointments - or sometimes even my job - steal my enjoyment of the time between now and that feared day on the horizon. I should luxuriate in the waiting time and use it fully for good things, not negative feelings.

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    1. Enjoying "Now" is of course just an aspiration and perhaps a reminder too.

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  14. Great post but for some of us this is difficult to accomplish. When you look to the future you can have hope or maybe dreams. In the present, not always. But you are right, it is something to strive for.

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    1. I think it is difficult for all of us to accomplish but if we are not careful days or weeks can pass by - seeming unremarkable, unmemorable. In my opinion, as you suggest, we should at least strive to cherish today.

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  15. This is a very Zen post!

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    1. Zen did not write it! I wrote it myself!

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