I planned to write a post for this week about childhood dreams. I was going to write it on the train, then the train was too crowded. Then I got busy with work over the weekend (I have a job with no weekends) and told myself perhaps I’ll skip writing this week, wait until I get off the road and have the time and space to focus. Wait until things slow down. As soon as things slow down I’ll really be able to crush it.
Sound familiar?
“If only I didn’t have so much going on, I would…”
“As soon as things quiet down, I’ll be able to…”
Week #1 of the digital breakup has been a whirlwind. I’ve traveled a lot, I’ve scrambled to keep up with multiple work projects, and I’ve tried to take some days off to be with family. It’s been the kind of week that challenges my ideas about presence.
In the midst of it all, I keep coming back to an episode of Magic Lessons and to this idea: The Action is Here.
The action of my life and the world around me is not in the elusive future where everything slows down and is better and manageable and I finally look up. It’s HERE, NOW, and if I don’t pay attention I’ll miss it.
Even without my phone to hide behind this week, I’ve noticed I can still miss the action because I’m very busy doing two useless things:
1. Lamenting the past
The past and I don’t get along that well. Even though it’s over, I still stress out about it. I regret stuff. I dwell. I apologize for it a lot. Sometimes I let it paralyze me.
2. Manipulating the future
The future and I are better friends than the past. I like the future because I can prepare for it and plan ahead and worry about it. I can control it because it hasn’t yet happened. Right? Also, if there’s something I want to do or need to do and would rather put it off, the future is where I can send it. Ah, the future! That’s when it will all be better! In the future I’ll be free enough and rested enough and skinny enough and it’ll all be just right. Then I can really pay attention and get stuff done.
Also, I’m an ambitious person. I dream big dreams. While mostly this is a good thing, it can get dangerous because if I’m not careful it keeps me living only for the future.
So there is a third option I’m trying to choose more often.
Be. Here. Now.
Right now is where the action is. Right now is where the sacred moments are happening.
If I’m busy regretting who I was or who I’ve not yet become, I miss who I’m becoming right now. If I’m so caught up trying to fix the past or crossing off the to-do list for the future, I miss all the beauty of the crowded train. I don’t look up to see their faces; I don’t hear the amazing stories they’re telling each other.
If I’m so busy figuring out how to hack my life, I risk missing the journey entirely. And the journey is where it’s at. The journey is where we learn, grow, and train our eyes to see.
The lessons to be learned, the experiences that will change us, and the people who need to be cared for, they are all right in front of us, right now. Right now is a gift and it’s the only time that’s guaranteed.
Are you somewhere you’d rather not be? In a job you don’t like? In a house that’s not quite right? In a place you can’t wait to leave? Are you dreaming a big dream for the future? Good! Me too. Keep moving toward it, but in the meantime, remember this:
Life is not happening in another place or another time. Look up. What you have NOW, who you are NOW, where you are NOW is where it’s at. If our attention and energy flows from the abundance of the present, it will always be enough.
Pay attention. The action is here. Be here now.
(The fantastic episode of Magic Lessons referenced is #4 and you can find it here.)