High on Happiness

Posts Tagged ‘here and now’

How very busy we are at wanting what is to be something else!  We paper over today with daydreams of yesterday’s news and regrets.  We scribble plans and worries all over tomorrow, while today sits sparkling all around us, all but unnoticed.

And yet, it’s today—this moment—that holds all the joy if we would just take it as it is.

Happiness—the real stuff—comes from opening our hearts and minds to what’s before us, to diving right into the moment’s juice and color.  Not judging.  Not comparing.  Not looking for lack or shortcomings.  Not even looking for treasure (although it’s always there, just waiting to surprise us).  Just simply looking, and allowing, and embracing it all as the gift that it is.

The moment asks nothing of us except that we receive it; it offers itself to us wholly and pure.  When we accept it as it is, standing in its center, we can respond to it from our hearts.  We can feel the depth of its texture, the sweep of its breadth, the direction of its flow, its unfolding potentials and possibilities.  And then we are free to dance with it from a place of conscious choosing, in accord with our highest and best.

From time to time, check in with yourself.  Ask yourself, “Am I awake?”  Let the dreams go; trade them for the now.  Be here—where it’s real.

A week ago, the world was buried in snow.  Tonight, only the deepest patches of it remain. The first shoots of the daffodils burst through the ground today, and tonight’s evening air carried the music of songbirds.

The transition was such a sudden one that it felt a bit surreal to me, as if I had skipped over a couple weeks somehow. I kept blinking in disbelief.  But I gladly embraced the change.

Change, of course, is life’s one constancy.  Each passing moment, each season, is unique; and each unique moment passes.  Some we savor; some we endure.  Some bring lessons; some bring pleasures.

Remembering that each is fleeting helps us keep our awareness anchored in the present as the moments flow by.  Whether they’re rushing or languidly floating past, each is precious.  Each has its own peculiar beauty.  And none more than this one, right here, right now.