Be urgently in now!

Children are always in the moment—totally, fiercely and urgently in the moment. They feel their joy, discomfort, sadness, frustration, hunger, imagination, impatience acutely. They are the definition of being in now. And it is wonderful to watch.  

Somewhere along the line we lose this fierce attachment to now—we learn to ignore what is going on because we are locked into the past or focused on the next thing. We lose that sense of what we need right now to feel better; we lose that sense of joy over a butterfly or a chipmunk or a wave or a cloud or a bubble. We lose moment after moment (sometimes hours, days or months) in our lives because we aren’t here—in this moment. And we only get this moment once.

We need to reclaim this fierce and urgent attachment to the moment. To be aware of what is going on right now. To be aware of what our mind and body are telling us we need right now. To be conscious of being in the past and not now—unless we choose to sit and remember or process. To let the weight of future possibilities buoy us up and not weigh us down—remember only 3% of what we worry about actually turns our as bad as we thought it would. To be aware we are working when we work, to be aware we are planning when we plan, to be aware we are playing when we play. To see the butterfly, the bird, the colleague, the client, the spreadsheet, the meal—all the wonders that are our lives—moment by glorious moment.

Here is to a childlike attachment to now!