An article I read the other day reminded me that so much of happiness is dependent on our assessment of the present. When Old News Is Good News: The Effect of 6 Elderly New Yorkers on One Middle-Aged Reporter by John Leland is part of a series, following the lives of a sample of our country's aging demographic. In particular, I think the work of this reporter highlights how the elderly understand best that time is a most precious commodity. Leland writes of one of his subjects:
One day in his apartment, Fred Jones asked me my definition of happiness, then gave me his own. “Happiness to me is what’s happening now,” he said. The apartment, a cluttered wreck that was up two flights of stairs he could barely climb, was an unlikely place to look for happiness, and Mr. Jones, whose health was failing, was an unlikely spokesman. But he never dwelt on his problems. “If you’re not happy at the present time, then you’re not happy,” he said. “Some people say, if I get that new fur coat for the winter, or get myself a new automobile, I’ll be happy then. But you don’t know what’s going to happen by that time. Right now, are you happy?” Whenever I asked him the happiest time of his life, he said without hesitation, “Right now.”As such, happiness in the now is really a choice, because sometimes the present really stinks. I would really like to choose more happiness, knowing that now, right now, is all we can truly count on. What remains a challenge is to stay in that mindset, to keep that awareness and knowledge at the forefront of my thoughts. I do think I can take some small steps to build my practice of living in the now:
- I can end each day, recounting at least one thing that made me happy.
- I can work to cultivate and garner wisdom through experiences, relationships, and intellectual engagement.
- I can look back and take heart that I am resilient and strong. "Look how I have thrived despite what life has thrown my way, so why worry about what is to come?!"
- I can spend some time each day in mindful silence or prayer or meditation or reflection with the present front and center.
- I can laugh and cry and rage and process so that all the emotions which are mired in the past don't hinder life in the present.
- I can let love live large in my life.
- I can write.
Writing brings me front and center. It pulls out my thoughts which have a life of their own and simply pour forth as they are right now, write now, as this post finds form. So, I thought I would share a new poem that I wrote in the quiet of a solitary hour yesterday morning. So unlike my usual self with list of tasks at the ready, I sat down and wrote and gave myself to the time in hand. I was so glad I did, because the writing felt so good.
Never
Ending Now
If now is always there,
The present eternally reliable,
Then this involuntary breath,
This wakeful blink of both eyes,
This bitter aftertaste of coffee brewed strong,
This warmth of pup with head in lap,
This glimpse of sun rising on a still, cold horizon,
This knowledge of love asleep in downy beds above,
Binds me with my fellow travelers forever,
One as near as the other far
Both yesterday as well as tomorrow,
In a single journey through memory and hope.
Universal,
Instinctual,
Never ending
Now.
