We unconsciously dismiss or hurry each moment in our persistent belief that the future is unquestionably more important than the present. We are after all driven through life by a preoccupation with our future rather than with the here and now.
At best, ‘here and now’ is a necessary inconvenience, something that we must reluctantly go through in order to get to the thing that we believe is so much more important, that is going to deliver us to the life that we truly want, that life in which everything is just so perfectly in place and where happiness awaits us with an open cheque. It is that ‘happily ever after’, ‘disappearing into the sunset’ future that we’re promised in all our fairy tales, childhood and Hollywood alike, as well as by the pragmatic systems of ‘rewards and punishments’ prescribed by religions and economics.
As we chase after the future, the present, the here and now, is hurriedly foot-noted. It’s an irritating job that must be done. It cannot be avoided. How can you avoid the only thing that is real, after all?
But, let’s not get too hung up about it. It might be the only thing that is real but it’s not the most delightful or convenient so why waste my time and attention on it? The future, as I’ve been imagining it, is far more worthy of my investment. The present, well, that’s just an inconvenient truth, one of many admittedly but inconvenient all the same.
I’d rather not be here, being a conscious and non-judging witness to all that I am doing, the thoughts that are coursing through my mind, the sensations that are running through my body as I am feeling all that I am feeling as I go about each of my activities – writing, responding to phone calls and emails, working with a client, planning an event, eating, having a coffee, going to the toilet, watering my plants, preparing my meal.
All of these are necessary things that I have to perform everyday, some a little less mundane than others, some a lot more inspiring than others. It’s a bother having to do them everyday but I’ll be damned if I give them any more attention than they deserve and they only deserves what is needed to get them done. And I know them well enough to do them without paying hardly any attention to them. In fact, I’m good at doing them while thinking about other things that are more deserving of my attention.
And so we spend our lives trying to create a future that hardly ever turns out the way we imagined it would. We certainly didn’t create our illness, at least not intentionally, did we? But here we are, diagnosed with this or that or suffering an unshakable cold. We certainly didn’t plan and create a financial crisis, did we? Yet, here we are struggling to make ends meet. We didn’t plan and create a relationship breakdown, did we? So how in heaven’s name are we in one? We didn’t plan and design for our teenager getting into trouble at school, did we? Yet, here we are at yet another meeting with his form teacher and the principal.
Why is the future that we planned and hoped for not happening? After all, we spent almost all our waking hours doing what we believed needed to be done for it to happen. We worked hard, we tried to do the right thing, we didn’t squander our money or time, we were responsible, we got good advice, took out insurance, minded our own business, were loyal, made our commitments and stuck to them…Why then have we not got the future we have spent all our lives earning and deserving?
The answer is alarmingly simple – it came and it went innumerable times. It came but you were never there. It knocks on your door every moment of your life but you are almost never home.
It comes here but you are hardly ever here. It comes now but you’re mostly not now.
It visits everyday, every moment, but you don’t recognize it. You’re too busy with your plans, your actions, your particular ideas about how and when and what, forgetting that what you’re really after is happiness, peace, ease of being. Instead, you’re carried away by particularities, failing therefore to see the gifts of happiness, peace and joy that are always waiting in the doorway of your attention, in every moment.
The future is never not now. The future is ALWAYS now.
MENTORING
Let Life express itself intoxicatingly, uniquely, powerfully and limitlessly in, as and through you. Don’t settle, whatever your age. Know your true Self. Follow your Bliss. Live the Life that you know you want to! Contact me here.
MINDFULNESS ONLINE
Join me every week to sit in the presence of your true Self and experience the greatness of Life flowing naturally, effortlessly and powerfully in, as and through you!