Now

Now in this moment,
Now in this Day,
God is creating
And leading the way.
- Richard and Barbara Howard, Hymns of the Saints 58

Live in the Now, we are told. Live in the present moment.
Sounds easy, right? After all, what other moment can you live in?

And yet we don’t. When we are young, we spend our time thinking about all the things we will do when we are older. It becomes a habit; an addiction perhaps. A child looks at those who are young adults with all that they can do, and dreams of that day. The young adult looks at those who have established themselves and thinks that would be great. Those established with a career, a home and a family look forward to a future time when the mortgage is paid, the children are older and more independent, and then to the freedom of retirement.

Then a funny thing happens. Often, it seems, we stop looking forward and start looking back! We start remembering; perhaps mentally reliving the days of our childhood or youth. We reflect on things done and things not done, and perhaps wish we had done them differently. Is all this an attempt to avoid the Now?

What is it about the Now that is so frightening? Why do we perform such mental gymnastics to avoid thinking about it or living in it? Books have been written encouraging us to embrace it. Religious practice urges us to live in it. In the end, isn’t the Now all we really have?

The present moment is as it is. Always. Can you let it be?
- Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks