Watch this Patriots' lineman taking the run of his life. Here.
I just want to save this forever. The ridiculous joy of seeing a 320 lb lineman running back a kick return makes for a good smile.
"Life is made up, not of days, but moments." Unknown
"Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment a man finds out, once and for all, who he is." Jose Luis Borges
In my experience, Borges is right, but there's an added bonus in that everyone is eligible to live a lifetime in the eternal present.
Since I gave my life over in complete surrender to God's will, I feel that I have lived in the eternal present, which unfolds, even without, or especially without the application of my ego. I pray for the good and the right; I live in the present; and good things happen one after another.
When my egoic mind takes over, or when I react with my base animal instincts without God's gift of reason playing any role, then bad things happen.
In the end, those bad moments aren't so bad, because even as they happen to my internal distress, I have the ability to reconcile each negative on the balance sheet of my total experience, and determine how I might take the right action in the future.
But, you might ask, how can you see or plan or think about the future, if you're constantly in the moment?
I don't think those ideas are irreconciliable. A lion lives in the moment even as she goes out to hunt for her cubs food. There is no thought or worry about the hunt; there is only the hunt.
Similarly, though I may "see the universe without leaving my room" to paraphrase the Tao Te Ching, I come to school, I plan for the week, I plan for each class, I grade each essay, I revise my plans for the class--all with a focus on takin in the fullest experience that humanity has to offer.
To sum up:
Even as I envision a better future, I live in the present.
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