Today is an experience. Yesterday, was a memory. Tomorrow, will be an anticipation. I frequently find myself thinking of time in a linear way like this. Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow. I think I’m not alone. I think most human beings experience time like this.
We can leave it at that, and nothing will change. Whatever happens today, if it’s especially joyful or especially painful, will be a memory that takes its seat in the theater of our past. However that theater of memories populates, we may begin to anticipate wonderful things or become really worried about more bad things in the future. And the not so special events of today? They fade into forgetfulness.
There is another way. Some of the wisest of human sages tell us that linear time is an illusion. In fact, it’s all just present time, if we attend to it that way. Let that sink in for a minute.
Sitting here right now, I can choose to go to that moment of joy I experienced yesterday and live it again. It will make me smile or laugh or cry (joyfully, of course). I am experiencing it right now. I’m calling it up out of that theater of the past and making it present again. I can also call up that painful experience if it strikes me as meaningful. Because I am not a glutton for punishment, though, I choose to call it up and ask it what I might glean from it. Some caveat, some lesson, something to avoid next time, some insight I missed the first time through, or do we just chalk this up to a painful experience and move on, grateful that it’s over? Whatever it might be, I am calling it up for one more interview before I decide, here in the present, what to do with it.
What about that stuff that hasn’t happened yet, both the expected and the unexpected? I can worry just as well as the rest of humanity. I don’t like to worry. I like to be calm and at ease. So, if all of time is here and now, really, why not call upon some future version of myself? Why not call up the version of myself who will have figured out how to deal with the things that are coming (like some dreaded event I know is coming someday soon)? Why not call up the one who knows how to gracefully receive the unexpected things, too? I call that future version of myself into the present moment, and I ask him to help me get to where he is, help me be peaceful and at ease. Help me receive life with grace. Help me find my joy.
For me, this is a much more powerful way to deal with time in my life, but I’m a novice at it, so I must practice. Today. Always, today.
~Bob Patrick
What a fascinating reflection! Thank you Bob, I shall be calling this up to contemplate the idea of the fluidity of time.
Bob, this certainly gives me a new understanding of time. Maybe I can successfully practice it in thinking about what will happen to my daughter after Dave and I are no longer alive to care for her. My worry over that is sometimes overwhelming. I am trying to do everything possible now to create safeguards and support structures to insure she will be able to live as independently and happily as possible. Your perspective on time has made me realize that my present worries about her future should not hinder me from enjoying my time together with her now.
I respect you and Dave for your continual love and support for your daughter. She will have had a strong family foundation, a tool box full of worthwhile experience and a lasting self esteem that will anchor her in society. You and Dave have gone above and beyond for your beloved daughter, and you have taken the Time to do it. After its all set up, I hope you can find the times that fell off your plate when it was so full of responsibility, and enjoy the days to com.