Live in The Moment

We can’t go back to yesterday, ever. 

Sometimes when I look at pictures or relive memories from different times in my life, and I cannot believe they are over. 

Like poof, in a flash.

While we are busy living life, many times we don’t even realize that in the blink of an eye that a certain period of time is quickly passing by. We’re so focused on one thing that we don’t even realize a whole bunch of other things are happening at the same time.

As it is happening, it doesn’t feel like it will ever end—but the truth is that all of a sudden today becomes yesterday and yesterday becomes last week, and last week becomes last year, and so on and so forth. 

I remember feeling completely overwhelmed by the births of all three of my children. The first two had colic for over a year and when the last one arrived, she too was colicky. 

Only this time I had two others to tend to who were under age 6. 

As I sat up at night, in the wee hours of 1, 2, 4, 6 a.m., I used to think,  how will I ever get through this?

And just like that—-poof! They are now 21, 18 and 15. 

It passed. 

Much faster than I could ever have imagined. 

And I did get through it, so much so that while I can remember feeling tired and irritable, my recollection is more of how it all flew by so quickly than about always being exhausted.

Here’s the thing: Time has this little way of creeping up on you. 

Slowly.

But nonetheless, it’s always passing by. 

Now when I see pictures of my three little babies all so small, I realize that even in the hardest of times, all things pass. 

Which brings me to relationships and connections. 

I think about past relationships and how while we are immersed in them—be it spouses, partners, friends or co-workers—we never think they will end.

We look back at pictures, hear a song or see a memento and it immediately brings us back to feeling exactly like we were at that very minute. 

Some like to refer to this as nostalgia.

I like to call it an emotional moment down memory lane. And while not every recollection brings back a warm and fuzzy feeling, (that’s for sure) it does always deliver a measurement of how much we’ve changed and an assessment of how we would have handled certain situations differently today. 

When I was young, I used to dream about my future and romanticize about my tomorrows. I don’t do that anymore, because I realized years ago that I didn’t take into account what it would really look like. 

I’m talking about the big picture—all the way around. 

While I was always looking forward to my own personal destination or this or that, I wasn’t picturing all the other collateral changes that were part of this future: parents aging, becoming sick and dying; children going off to school; people getting divorced; friendships ending; jobs changing.

Now today, I no longer dream of the future. This doesn’t mean that I don’t have my own personal picture of what I want, because I do. But what has changed is that I live much more in the present with a heightened awareness of time.

While there are many times that I deeply miss something from my yesterdays, I quickly move past that momentary feeling, as fast as possible, to focus in on today. While I used to be guilty of living in the future, so many people I know like to live in the past.

This is often worse than living in the future.

The are so busy looking in the rear view mirror that they can’t appreciate where they’re going.

As my father would say, “What happened yesterday is yesterday’s news.” 

And none of us can rewrite history, though many do try.

So, here’s my advice just for today: Live in the moment and appreciate the now, because everything about today will become a memory before you even know it. 

So try—and I mean try your best—to make it a good one. 

Until next week,

Love,

Karin