Here and Now

This week's quote has some simple advice, which most of us find really difficult to follow. It reads, "Learn from the past, dream of the future, but live here and now."

Far too many of us (me included) either regret the past, or tinsel-wrap it with the fake memories which are nostalgia, looking back to a golden time which never really existed. Learning from the past, learning from our mistakes and experiences, is a taller order, and it can be tempting to simply walk away. 

And we dream of a future in which all our problems will magically dissolve into the aether, leaving us blissfully happy. Or we fixate on a particular day which is coming "soon" and spend all our emotional and spiritual energy longing for it, forgetting to live in the meantime.

What we don't do enough of, in my opinion, (and I'm speaking personally here) is to "live here and now". To wake up each morning and resolve to make *this* day a good one, to the best of our ability. To be awake, aware of the possibilities of the day as it unfolds, to appreciate the good things as they happen, to find the strength within ourselves to stand fast in our truth when things go awry.

Whenever I find myself either stuck in the past or impatient for the future, I remember the wonderful words attributed to the Sanskrit poet, Kalidasa:

"Look to this day!

For it is life, the very life of life.

In its brief course lie all the verities

and realities of your existence:

the bliss of growth,

the glory of action,

the splendour of beauty;

For yesterday is but a dream,

and tomorrow is only a vision;

but today, well lived, 

makes every yesterday a dream of happiness

and every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this day."

Look well, therefore, to this day.