Wednesday, Feb. 8: The Advantages of Now

THE ADVANTAGES TO NOW
The main advantage is for the impatient:: you never have to wait for the now. Isn’t that fine? What a gift. What a present.

I once gave my son a Christmas present. It started as a big box, and inside it was a smaller box, then smaller, you get the idea, until it was a little tiny box, and inside that I had a small piece of paper on which I’d written: The Present.

He was about 14 then, and he’s twice that now, and he still remembers. To anyone we love in our lives, this is the best present we can offer, the present of our presence.

And to ourselves! This is the best present we can offer: the present.

All the get a round 2’s in our life, such a drag, and this we never have to put off. We can always be in the present. We do, of course, put it off: tomorrow I’ll slow down and pay attention to the roses tomorrow, or later, when I’m on my vacation, or on the weekend, but today I’m in too much a rush. Hmm. And what happens to the days we rush through? Lost, gone, missed, neglected. And what happens to our lives in the days we rush through without being present? Our life in those days is the same: gone, missed, neglected.

Do we like ourselves enough to give ourselves the present of the present? I hope so. Then we can begin to be free. Then we can be happy in that secure base of being, being ourselves, being in the moment, being connected to life as we are living it.

So easy. So easy to forget. And when’s a good time to re-remember again?