Enjoying the present moment

11/02/2007

You probably all know some variation of the popular quote that yesterday is gone and tomorrow is uncertain, but today is a gift – that’s why it’s called the present. A little too neat and sentimental-sounding for some, it still has hold of a profound truth. It is the seat you feel under you, the tea you taste, the unease in your heart, the song in the background and these words, which you are reading, that keep saying to you, “Now, now, now.” Our experience and our lives are made up entirely and exclusively of present moments.

I was forcibly reminded of this when I was facilitating English conversation practice among a group of students. I asked them all to share with the class the best moment of their lives. We heard about joys and triumphs and then came to one tall, quiet young man who always spoke slowly. “I have no doubt,” he said in his considered way, “that this moment is the best moment of my life.” We looked at him, a little startled, then looked around at the unglamorous classroom and looked at him again. “Because NOW is all we have, all we ever get.”

This is not to underrate the value and influence of memories or the importance of future plans and dreams. It is just to say that it’s all actually one now. When you made those memories, you made them in the present. When tomorrow comes it will be today. So the art is to live fully in the present moment, and that is no mean skill. Not everyone can do it; in fact, very few people really do it. We agonize about the past and worry about the future so that the moment of now, which is life itself, goes by unnoticed.

Jonathan Swift understood this when he said, “May you live every day of your life.” What a sweet blessing to wish others.

Sumitted by Melanie Steyn, celebtated and approved writer for kimknightcoaching & an author in her own right