being present in what's happening now

I wonder how many people are like me in that they easily get lost in what has happened or in what may happen. We get so busy with thinking about those things that we completely forget about what is happening right now. I wonder if when we forget to really pay attention to what is happening now we miss so much of life.

I read a quote the other day that really got me started thinking about this.

Live. And Live Well. BREATHE. Breathe in and breath deeply. Be PRESENT. Do not be past. Do not be future. Be Now. On a crystal clear, breezy 70 degree day, roll down the window and FEEL the wind against your skin. Feel the warmth of the sun. If you run, then allow those first few breaths on a coll Autumn day to FREEZE your lungs and do not be alarmed, be ALIVE. Get knee-deep in a novel and LOSE track of time. If you bike, pedal HARD ... and if you crash then crash well. Feel the SATISFACTION of a job well done - a paper well-written, a project thoroughly completed, a play well-performed. If you must wipe the snot from your 3-year old's nose, don't be disgusted if the Kleenex didn't catch it all ... because soon he'll be wiping his own. If you've recently experienced loss, then GRIEVE. And grieve well. At the table with family and friends, LAUGH. If you're eating and laughing at the same time, then might as well laugh until you puke. And if you eat, then SMELL. The aromas are not impediments to your day. Steak on the grill, coffee freshly ground, cookies in the oven. And TASTE. Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste very ounce of life. Because-it-is-most definitely-a-Gift.

Every example is about being here now - paying attention to what is going on in the moment. That is how God desires for us to live. He does not want us to get caught up in what happened or to be so caught up in what may come that we miss now.

Obviously, there are times when it is good to look back and see what we can learn from what we went through and how we handled it. And there are times when it is good to look to the future and where God may have us to go. But, we must be careful not to get caught up in either. There is too much that is happening now that we miss if we are focusing on the past or the future.

To close I will leave you with two questions that I was asking myself after I read this quote:
Am I present in what is happening now most of the time?
Am I more likely to get caught up in the past or the future?
Those questions challenged me to evaluate my own life. I hope they do the same for you.