My friend Joanna put up this post about living in the moment. It got me thinking seriously about something that has been in the back of my mind for some time - how I can better approach living, and yes, eventually but hopefully not soon, dying.
Of course, dying is something most of us want to ignore and definitely to postpone. What we might not want to acknowledge is that we often ignore and postpone living as well.
As Jiddu Krishnamurti wrote:
"We think that living is always in the present and that dying is something that awaits us at a distant time. But we have never questioned whether this battle of everyday life is living at all. We want to know the truth about reincarnation, we want proof of the survival of the soul, we listen to the assertion of clairvoyants and to the conclusions of psychical research, but we never ask, never, how to live - to live with delight, with enchantment, with beauty every day."*
When young, I was always thinking - what next? - instead of savouring life. Even now, writing this blog post is an example of not living in the moment. In my hubris I try to make something permanent out of a moment's thought when instead I need to make moments into the most important thing.
Here, then, is a message I would send to my younger self if I could. It is definitely an instruction to myself now, to repeat as a mantra:
Find joy in what you are experiencing every moment so that when your last moment comes you will be prepared to experience even that - fully - and without fear.
*Krishnamurti, J. (Jiddu) (1895-1986): Freedom from the Known
New York, Harper & Row, 1969
It's good to be conscious of life and death; the biggest danger is sleepwalking through life and realizing that error too late. Nice post.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ally.
DeleteEnjoy the present moment by breathing in and breathing out. For many years now, these words by Thich Nhat Hanh have moved me to live in the present.
ReplyDeleteExactly! Breath is life.
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