"Don't worry about tomorrow    . . . each day has enough trouble of its own."   - Jesus, in Matthew 6:34

This is along the same lines as an email I wrote about a month ago, but I think it is important!   :)

Many days in the past year I have stopped briefly to be aware of how much of my mind activity has to do with something in the future - something that looks challenging,  something to look forward to, something to prepare for, something I want to avoid, something I want to hurry to, etc. - and I am often brought up short.

I suppose part of the reason I have paid attention to that is that around a year ago as I was sitting on my chair in the morning and meditating, the thought began going through my mind:  "Everything you need to live well is in this moment." 

Interesting.  I realized I wasn't living as though I believed that!  (Maybe that's why it came?) Much of what I need to live well is in the future, isn't it?  Then I ran across this:  "Are you waiting to start living?  If you develop such a mind pattern, no matter what you achieve or get, the present will never be good enough; the future will always seem better.  A perfect recipe for permanent dissatisfaction and non-fulfillment, don't you agree? . . . How much of your life do you spend waiting? . . . Waiting is a state of mind.  Basically it means that you want the future; you don't want the present."  Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

I don't know what you think of Eckhart Tolle, but, ouch.  Why would I think or say that my present reality is not a good place to be?  Is there really anything better than the present moment, the present day?  It's all I have and all I ever will have.  Do I really want it, whatever it happens to be?

If that sinks in, I can begin being aware of what I am resisting in the present that just is, waiting for me to accept instead of fight.  The traffic, the slowness of the cashier, interruptions, my weight, my feelings, my disappointments.  Resisting them only causes me more pain.  Acceptance of them puts me in a position of passionate peacefulness out of which to relate to them. When that happens I am salt or light in my present, rather than a resistor!

The best place for you to be is where you are, right now.  If that doesn't seem true, spend a little time considering what it does to you to try to get out of the moments you are in and to try to control your future moments.  And see if you might not want to become more accepting of what is. 

"God, Eternal Now, since you are present everywhere You are also present in this moment.  Because I am not to the next moment yet, you aren't either.  You are always Present.  Help me to be willing to be where you and I both are, here, and open my eyes to see the truth that nothing else is needed.  Amen"

P.S. So that I can Live.