Thoreau wrote: “You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land, there is no other life but this.”
A couple of years ago, while my husband and I were on vacation, we decided to go for river rafting at Rishikesh. We had a wonderful leisurely trip down the river and it is a day that I still remember fondly. At one point, I looked across the river and saw two people in a canoe working really, really hard. They were paddling against the current.
Although they were laughing about going upstream and yelling across the river to us that it was the best way to travel, they were definitely fighting against the river’s flow. They were also working a lot harder than we were on that beautiful summer day. We too were working (actually my husband did most of the paddling which made the trip a real pleasure for me); but most of the time, traveling with the current helped us and gave us the extra momentum we needed to move towards our desired destination. The only time we had any difficulty on that wonderful day was when we decided to give some ducks the right of way.
You must have guessed that I’m using the river as a metaphor for life. Do you have any areas in your life that you just might be paddling upstream? One of the most effective ways of connecting to the flow of your life is by making the present perfect. Although the present may not be what you want or like, it is still perfect. Even if the present isn’t exactly what you want, you can still make the most of it by accepting your current reality. You can avoid the physical exertion involved with trying to paddle upstream and against the current, because you aren’t wishing your present were different. You will have more focus simply because your concentration and attention are in the right direction.
Again, you don’t have to like your present in order for it to be perfect, you may not like having to work a side job to support your acting or art or you may not like living from paycheck to paycheck, but this may be your current reality and it is perfect nonetheless. It is what you have today and once you accept your today, you don’t have to struggle to paddle upstream anymore. You connect with the flow by consciously and mindfully stepping into your today.
And when we come to accept the reality of our lives today, we have clarity about choices that are available to us. The choices you make today will affect your tomorrow. And the present you are living today was created out of the choices you made yesterday. The best way to create a wonderful future is by living well in the present. The present will become the future in the moments that follow.
One advantage in accepting that your present is perfect, is that you aren’t waiting for “one day” to arrive because you are content to live in the today you’ve created. Planning your future is an end, but what you live and what you experience as you plan for the future is your today. Look around you: What is waiting for your attention today? What opportunities are available to you today? Grab them! Seize them!
Just remember that yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is God’s gift, that’s why we call it the present.
[Arvind Passey]
[2006]
Written for PT Education
