“Time has a way,” I sometimes tell my friends, “of doing things in the right order.”
That’s not always an apparent fact, nor is it always easy to accept. But if you look back at your life, you’re likely to discover that decisions you made in the past put you exactly where you needed to be a couple years farther down the road.
Everything that happens is for our enrichment in one way or another. Everything leads us to the fuller knowledge of ourselves that only experience can bring. Understanding that lets us relax a little. It lets us settle more fully into the present and to appreciate whatever is unfolding in our lives right now.
I’ve been thinking about time this week, as summer morphs into fall. After the long green days of warmth and light, I’m eager for a nip in the morning air and for the blaze of autumn’s crimsons and golds. But while I’m enjoying the delicious feeling of anticipation, I’ve been reminding myself not to let it so overpower me that I miss what is happening right now. It’s as easy to get lost in anticipation as it is to get lost in reliving the past.
It’s fine to savor sweet memories from the past, to anticipate the joys the future may bring, to dream and plan for the way we would like our lives to unfold. These, too, are enriching parts of our experience. But it’s right now where our real living takes place.
Right now, after all, is where our power is. It’s the only moment in time when we can act, and feel, and love. It’s the only moment in which our senses are alive, where sound and sight and taste and touch are real.
The present is a refuge, too, from the pain of the past and the error of dread. Right here, right now, we’re okay. We’re alive and breathing. Right now, we can choose. We can choose to be here, to notice how we are —and that we are. We can choose where we will direct our attention and how we want to respond to whatever life is presenting to us right now. And it’s in the choosing that we create the quality of our lives.
As for me, I’ll choose openness and joy. I’ll feel the tingle of anticipation that September’s winds bring. I’ll revel in the winds themselves, and in the fragrances they carry, and in the bold and joyous colors of the leaves that ride them.
Time has a way of doing things in the right order. Trust tomorrow to to be tomorrow, and let the past rest in the place where days gather at their close. Do that and you are free to make today a day of genuine happiness and peace.
Warmly,
Susan