Midnight thoughts on the present moment
Stop and smell the roses, they say. When I first heard this phrase, I thought I have just found the perfect representation of what a cliché is. I was in high school, and this quote was chosen as a title for an essay we were supposed to write. In my mind, I threw up a little every time I thought of it.
Simple younger years... There really are some things one only understands with time.
As the years pass by, I occasionally notice a moment I feel I have missed. Sometimes I don't realize it until much later – like when I didn’t go to a concert because I thought the band plays all the time and that I can go some other time. And then they stop, and I can't. It's almost impossible to wrap my head around it. A simple, insignificant decision I have taken at a specific moment in time suddenly defines whether I ever get to have a particular experience or not. I could not grasp it in full, but I started to feel time might be more precious, and moments can be more temporary than I ever thought.
In retrospect, I should have paid more attention to that already back then, but who'd have known.
In university, I have learned about memory and how it fails us. All that we remember (or rather, all that we think we remember) is a mere romantic idea, an interpretation of the experiences we made and how they made us feel. On the other hand, you don't need to have a Harvard professor level of knowledge about how the human mind and memory work; you likely understand that the future is uncertain. While (in my opinion) we can certainly add to it and - to some extent - influence how it unfolds for us, it will never be in our power to reliably predict it or avoid any external influences on how it turns out to be. But if that is so, why do we spend so much time reminiscing about what once was and dreaming of what could one day be?
The present moment, in the end, is all we have.
Over time, I learned there are many ways, exercises, and even whole religions and movements that try to bring our attention to the present moment. Some feel more relatable than others; some might feel close to impossible to master. But if none of them seem to work for you, then... stop and smell the roses. That is all it comes down to in the end. Engage your senses. Have a good look at the trees and flowers, pay attention to the meal in front of you, and touch your clothes' fabric. Focus on the people you are with. What are they trying to tell you? What emotions can you see showing in their eyes and face? When you take a good look around you, what colors do you see? What smells are you picking up? Notice the light, the temperature, the invisible weight of the clothes on your skin. Look at the stars at night and take in what a tiny part of the universe you are.
“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the now the primary focus of your life. ”
The present moment is all we truly have. No amount of worrying or wishing can change that, especially during a holiday period that is as different and as strange as this one. But if neither worrying nor wishing your days away can make any difference, what's left then you might ask? It's time to slow down. Breathe. Just be wherever we are and enjoy the crap out of it as much as we can.
