Cheating Death
The present moment is all that exists. Choose to make it joyous!
We have no choice but to live in the moment. It is real time; ‘here and now’ time.
What came before is past; what comes next is the future, yet to arrive. Only the present moment is ‘real.’ Thinking we exist anywhere other than the exact moment we are in, is a deception.
When we become preoccupied with the past, we are lost in memory, caught in a time that no longer exists. If we jump ahead and project the present into the future, that is time that exists in the imagination, yet to exist. The saying is, “Live in the present;” more accurate would be, “Live in reality.”
Typically, depression lives in the past and anxiety lives in the future. Alternately, calmness and peace of mind live in the present.
To live in the moment is to be fully conscious; keenly aware of the miracle of being alive, capable of feeling happiness and gratitude (and yes, pain). This is the blessing bestowed on sentient beings, the capability to savor each moment.
It is a precious gift, often wasted on the young, who see time as stretching endlessly toward a destination not yet in their Atlas. But for us Elders, understanding the wonder of each moment that flees by, we try not to waste a single tick of the clock of time, savoring the opportunity to choose how we spend each precious minute, not settling for anything less than that which brings us the most joy.
When my granddaughter tentatively knocks on the door while I am watching the Bears’ game, and asks if she could help me with the recipe I planned for dinner, it’s a quick read, Bears game or sharing treasured time with the nine year old light of my life.
Which decision would connect us more closely? Which memory would bring me the most pleasure?
Filed under:
Aging, Life style, Love, Spiritual, Uncategorized
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Meet The Blogger
Howard Englander
In the course of a long business career I held many titles familiar to the corporate world. But as I quickly learned the lofty nameplates no longer apply when your career comes to a close and you move from the corner office to a corner of the den. The challenge was to stay vital and active rather than idling on the sidelines. I had to create a new foundation upon which to build life’s purpose and joy.
I stopped adding up my stock portfolio as a measure of my net worth and developed a healthy self esteem independent of applause from others.
I am the co-author of The In-Sourcing Handbook: Where and How to Find the Happiness You Deserve, a practical guide and instruction manual offering hands-on exercises to help guide readers to experience the transformative shift from simply tolerating life to celebrating life. I also am the author of 73, a popular collection of short stories about America’s growing senior population running the gamut of emotions as they struggle to resist becoming irrelevant in a youth-oriented society. -
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