I am convinced the secret of life is…
- …seizing the day.
- …living like there is no tomorrow.
- ..being in the moment.
- …living like I was dying.
The trouble is…I don’t know how to know if I am succeeding.
On one hand it seems like to really be in the moment…you have to let go of the past. Looking back suggests you are trying to relive a moment that has passed…that no longer is…that basically has died. But too often I’ve heard people say how their memories keep them company…reassure them…even carry them forward…particularly in the later years of life. So that would seem to suggest that some moments involve looking back.
On the other hand, it seems as soon as you try…deliberately…to be IN the moment…you are out of it…because you are distracted by your own efforts. The whole moment becomes artificial…and certainly that isn’t the goal.
I actually read somewhere that from a neurological perspective “now” is about six seconds, meaning that is how long it takes before your current thoughts move into your memory. I have no idea if that is right…and I imagine it varies based on what is happening at that moment…but it certainly gives some perspective for what “the moment” is that we want to try and live in.
Anyway, at this point, I feel like all I can do is try to experience each interaction, each event, each moment…fully. I try not to let my mind wander away from what is happening “here and now” (especially when I am with others). I try not to dwell too much on yesterday…or yesteryears. (Afterall, I can’t change what has happened….what I have done…or failed to do.) I try to remember at the moment of each decision which things will last and are eternal…and which things are not. Things pass away. People…relationships…actions…thoughts…these things “echo in eternity”…to borrow a line from the movie Gladiator.
“Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part
of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before.
And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your
life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly
creature or into a hellish creature; either into a creature that is in harmony
with God and with other creatures and with itself, or else into one that is in a
state of war and hatred with God and with its fellow creatures and with itself.” – C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
I guess when you boil it down, THAT is what “living in the moment” means to me. It means that I try to think and act in full awareness that what I think and say and do can move me…and potentially others…closer toward becoming a heavenly creature or a hellish creature…since we are ALL creatures. If what I say and do doesn’t move me one way or the other…then that isn’t a moment that is worth living. I don’t want to wait for heaven…I want Eternity Here…and Now!