Last week I took advantage of the rare sunshine by walking through beautiful green fields. I enjoyed the warmth of the sun with the greenery filled feast for my eyes. When a dog walker approached from the opposite direction, he gestured at the sky with his hands.
‘Isn’t it beautiful’, I offered.
‘It wont last’, came his reply.
Nothing in life does last, including us.
My initial reaction was feeling like someone had just peed on my bonfire. However, this was instantly replaced with ‘but it’s exactly right/totally true’. Nothing in life does last, including us. Everything comes and everything goes. It is all transient. We are transient as are our lives and all our experiences.
All we ever have is this moment right here, right now. We may be willing the moment away, we may be longing for days of old, having the time of our lives, or anywhere in between.
Nothing lasts.
This is it; here and now.
All we get to choose is how we engage with this moment.
Good and bad exist along with everything in between.
We may be so consumed or lost in our own heads that we fail to even notice the beauty and wonder of our surroundings. Or we may fixate on feelings of foreboding that can accompany endlessly scrolling our screens. There are always true horrors, injustices, and wars in the world. Good and bad exist along with everything in between.
THIS moment really is the only one we ever have
We may also like the idea that the past has gone and we don’t need to revisit it. This despite it taking from the now as well as the future when we fail to work through it. Similarly, a refusal to plan the steps needed or work required to achieve future goals will ensure the ‘fail to plan, plan to fail’ reality. But, if we live too much in the past or too far in the future, we miss what is happening here and now. When we remember that THIS moment really is the only one we ever have, we can make a more conscious choice how to respond to ourselves, others and the world around.