"Tomorrow you'll be brave you say? Fool! Dive today!"
Rumi
The other day I was standing at the bus stop. It was a cold but sunny early Spring morning. Birds were singing and the sun was shining, creating a shimmering light show as it bounced off newly forming buds on the many trees that surrounded us, even in this urban setting. I could see squirrels running amongst the branches. The vast blue sky was broken by only a few small white clouds.
About 12 people were standing at the bus stop. Nobody spoke and everyone wore a long face. Now and again someone would look at their watch and let out a sigh of exasperation. The bus was a bit late that morning. In the road was another queue. A line of cars winding its way into the city. Fingers tapped impatiently on steering wheels in front of more long faces. I imagined that if we had lived somewhere a little less polite than England, I would have been treated to the sound of car horns too.
Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
People were lost in their minds, lost in time, lost in the future. Not present at all. Missing the wonder of life around them. Missing the opportunity to encounter fellow human beings. Missing a big chunk of their lives every morning.
Most of us miss a huge amount of our lives because we are always waiting. Waiting for that big break, for that salary rise, for the weekend, for the holidays, for The One to appear in our lives, for our ship to come in, for our dream to come true, for life to become 'better' somehow. Then we will love. Then we will be happy. Then we will relax. Then we will rest. Then we will enjoy.
"Wait not. Want not. Love now and allow."
Happy Cow
With our minds continually in the future we are never present to encounter the wonder of life as it happens, NOW. We are perpetually living in a dream, under the impression that somehow conditions are going to be more favourable in the future. Then at last we will love and be happy.
Conditions will never be any more favourable for happiness than they are right now. Indeed, if you take your attention out of the future or the past at any time, you cannot help but be happy. There are never any problems in the present moment, never any reasons to be unhappy, and without any reason to be unhappy, loving happiness is our natural state. And all around, every moment, miraculous wonders are happening and we totally miss them, because we are simply not paying any attention.
But we keep on waiting. Waiting for a tomorrow that never comes. Wonderful life keeps passing by right in front of us and we go on missing it, our eyes fixed on our watches or the calendar, our attention lost in the dream-world of thoughts.
Tick, tick, tick.
Why are we waiting?
"Start living now. Stop saving the good china for that special occasion. Stop withholding your love until that special person materialises. Every day you are alive is a special occasion. Every minute, every breath, is a gift."
Mary Manin Morrissey
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