“Nothing is worth more than
this day.” –Goethe
In
2008, I am going to be here now.
When
you unpeel it, 37days is all about
now, but I find I don’t live in now very often. I live in then, or when, or one
day.
I want, instead, to live in Now. This moment. What
does that look like? I think it looks like a lot less time on the computer and
a lot more time playing Candyland
with a four-year-old or making vegan cupcakes with a teenager or raking leaves
with Mr Brilliant. I think it looks a lot like paying attention. I think, for
me, it looks a lot like writing or being
creative every day. Maybe it just looks like breathing deeply every morning
before flinging ourselves into the whirling stream of our lives. It is far too
easy to be swept into the
competing currents.
As
Thich Nhat Hanh has written, “Life can be found only in the present moment. The
past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be
in touch with life.”
Pema Chödrön has reminded us that Now is the only time. That
how we relate to Now creates the future. That what we do accumulates and that
the future is the result of what we do right now.
I asked Billy
Collins (you know, we talk constantly) if death is the main chord of all poetry.
“Yes, it is. But poetry isn’t a consolation for death, for the reality that you
will die. Instead, it is an expression of gratitude that you’re alive. Poetry
italicizes experience or brings it into sharper focus. It provides a fuller
immersion into life.” Poetry is about seizing the day, but we only need “carpe diem” if we realize we have a limited number of diems.
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