Gift of the Present

Anxiety leads me to dwell on the past and sometimes fear the future. Unfortunately, the past is loaded down with only parts of the true picture of how things really are. The past is just our story of the experience.

The future is unknown. Human beings often fear the unknown and label something that we don’t understand as “bad.” When we label something “bad” or “wrong” we eliminate many of our options. Sometimes the fear of what might happen is paralyzing. Someone who is afraid to fly on an airplane, has let their fear limit the possibilities in their life. Fear, however, is not present in the here and now; fear can only exist in the past and in the future.

Focusing on the now is hard, but now is all we really have. The energy I spend in trying to fix the past or control the future can best be spent on this one day. All things are possible today and in the future. Focusing on what I can do here and now and learning to be present each day is my new goal.

This poem by Henry Van Dyke is posted on a sundial at Wells College in New York:

The shadow by my finger cast,

Divides the future from the past:

Before it, sleeps the unborn hour

In darkness, and beyond thy power:

Behind its unreturning line,

The vanished hour, no longer thine:

One hour alone is in thy hands, --

The NOW on which the shadow stands!

Let me just re-phrase: the NOW on which MY shadow stands! Go forth and accept the gift which is the present.

Photo: Jagdish Bhatt