At the Present
I spend most of my time thinking in terms of not-now.
I am constantly planning and aspiring and thinking of future things, while at the same time, I journal a lot and spend a significant amount of time reflecting on what has happened.
The other day as I was headed out of the Y and toward my car, my mind spun with what I had to get at the grocery store and what I needed to do when I got home and who I needed to talk to — only to be arrested by the realization of how little time I spend in the present. I think maybe many of us are guilty of this same line of thinking. Fast-paced society leads to a disproportional amount of time in the future, and our own human nature puts us in the past a lot. It’s interesting because in the Bible, you find God desiring for us to live in the present. I’ve always acknowledged that, but it’s never really hit me like it did that day.
Every day may not be the most dazzling, but every day has beauty in it. This year, one of my resolutions was to maintain a more regular — and “normal” — schedule when not on the road. I’m starting to think it’s not so much about getting up in the morning or going to bed in the morning as much as it is about being fully present in the moment at hand. It seems like this way of thinking takes practice but I’m willing to try to do better. To make my new resolution simply “live more in the present.”
