Your time, like mine, is NOW!

Okay its a recession I get it and people all over are angry; I get that too. Here's what I don't get...5 years ago you were angry when you were making 6 figures too. Help me. How is it that you can walk around pist at the world because you can't manage with plenty talking about 'mo money, mo problems' and now be even more pist when its been taken away. You are looking back talking about how good it was then and you had it all. You don't remember having problems then nor the days you spent ranting about your burdens when you were blessed. Now its gone and in your reflection on the past it was all roses and gumdrops. This time of national hardship could be spent better by us all. If we could work on our humanity as hard and as diligently as we do the advancement of technology and the pursuit of increased capital we would be in good shape no matter the economy. Individually we could spend time with the family that has been suffering in 3rd, 4th and even 5th place behind work and money. We could invest on mending and reinventing ourselves after all life doesn't play with kid gloves so there is nothing wrong with taking care of #1 from time to time. Plenty of constructive things that could be done while waiting for America to finish licking its wounds and heal. Plenty of things that don't include self-immobilization by way of making the past more fantastical than it was.

Seldom do we live in the present. If we aren't looking into the future, we have our heads stuck in the past. I know that times are hard for many and it doesn't seem to be getting any better any time soon but the cycle has to be broken. Appreciation must be felt some where in the present for some thing even the smallest of things. Acceptance would be good if you cannot muster appreciation. Living in this moment with a mind set to see it as it is so later you will still recognize it what it was and not for what it should have been nor as a comparison of what isn't. It would be a challenge because we always want to compare and categorize things and nothing is exempt.

Every now and then I catch myself thinking, "it all could be better if I just....." The truth of the matter is I am so far from where I started in such a positive way that if I stopped all self-improvement now my successes would be enough to see me through to the end. I complain just like everyone else but I need to stop, no I want to stop. When I honestly look back on things, I remember complaining then too and now those are the days that I envy. I have been spending a lot of time reflecting on so many different aspects of my life. Some things make me sad and some quite angry while others still fill me with longing. At the end of each and every journey I take I leave with the question, how will I feel about this moment when I look back on it? How will I compare it? And you know, I feel like if I live this present as if it were my favorite memory then maybe it will be.

Looking into the past or daydreaming about the future can only keep you from spending your now with the intent that the present deserves. The circumstances of now may be far less than desirable but how you spend your time in it can give you life. Not to be incredibly cliche but really it comes to simply this: your time, like mine, is NOW! Get in the middle and spend it wisely.