Forever is composed of nows.
-Emily Dickinson
First, have you heard? It’s Woman’s History Month. I’d love to know your favorite piece of herstory. Tell me, tell me! Which woman inspires you the most?
Second, this Emily Dickinson quote really speaks to me. Just last night I was laying in bed and right before drifting into slumber land, it came very loud in the head of me that each moment is the only moment that exists. My use of the superlative often ignites excitement and wonder in those around me (i.e. “this is my favorite meal that I’ve ever had in my whole dang life”…every other night); and every time I use the term forever, I’m genuine and honest, because it is the best/worst moment of my whole life; it is the only moment.
On the other hand, sometimes I find that I get so caught up in the moment that I forget some of my very desired core values. Does this happen to you? For example, do you ever replay situations from the past, wishing you had done or said something differently, and as if you have a paintbrush, you touch up what happened, hoping that in the future you will remember the paintbrush? Before the live-in-the-moment-epiphany (and, yes, this is a constant epiphany I have), I found myself reliving conversations from our darling cobb-oven pizza dinner and wishing I had spent a little more time listening rather than excited about sharing my stories.
And right before I drifted away to dream, I realized that I have this beautiful ability to use my past in order to “create” a better version of myself. While it’s impossible to go back, I can live in the moment and duly note the past scenarios of which I wished to beautify.
After all, as Emily gathers, forever is only a string of right here and right now, so the more I spend in this moment, the better my past will look and feel.
How do you best live in the moment? What are your techniques to touch up yourself, while maintaining your here and now?
(Read the whole poem here.)
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.” Charles R. Swindoll
Thanks for sharing that quote, dad. I love it. I, too believe in attitude as one of the most core fundamental values we have! I love how close the apple has fallen from the tree in our case (however many miles separate us).
As a illustration that great minds really do think alike, you should check out my friend Kirsetin’s blog and her Wise Words series: http://www.kirsetinmorello.com/category/wise-words/ She is inviting other thinking writing women to respond to her weekly quote and link back to the community. I did last week’s quote but was sick this week and off the computer too much to participate. It would be great to hear your perspective!