84. Stay in the Present
Have you ever seen that magnet that says:
Yesterday is the past.
Tomorrow is the future.
Today is a gift—
That’s why it’s called the present.
I confess I can’t do it all the time—I stew over yesterdays, and I worry about the future; and sometimes I seem to live my life from event to event (as soon as I get past that day then I can relax).
I also found a vivid example of the magnet when I worked in nursing homes. Grown children would come in with their Mom and be busy telling me about this that she had done or what kind of person she was just three months ago. And they spent time lamenting this aging thing that had happened to her.
I listened and heard their stories. I didn’t know their mother as she used to be; I knew her as she was when she entered the nursing home. When I could find a time and space to talk with the family more, I would often try to say, “You know, your Mom is delightful right now. I know you’ve seen tremendous change in her, but when you can, meet her where she is right now, and enjoy her there.” What I recognized and didn’t say to them was that it could change again in a few months or in a year and I hoped they wouldn’t regret that they didn’t enjoy her now.
It’s not just about aging, or about nursing homes. It’s about living and staying in the present. What I want to do as much as I can is to be in the here and now, relish it, grapple with its problems, delight in its excitements, even feel its sorrows—so that when tomorrow comes I will live in that time as the present that it will be then.
