Mark Middleton’s Blog

The joy of what is… right now.

How many times do we stop, look around and take a chance to notice how beautiful it is right now?

I know, everybody tells us that right now is bad. We’ve got people beating us up, robbing us, bringing us into war, destroying the environment, warming the globe. We’re overweight, over-caffeinated, over-worked and under-paid. Everybody has something to complain about (even me).

What does fear look like? Princeton describes it “to be afraid or feel anxious or apprehensive about a possible or probable situation or event.” We fear what we expect - but feel helpless to change the outcome. Many of us fear financial destitution, loneliness or lack of good health. We probably fear these most because we feel like we might have a little control over these elements…. which causes us to be scared shitless. “What if, after all of my toiling and labor, I lose everything in a flood?!”

Exactly. There is never a time when you are prepared for absolutely everything. Unless… what if… you didn’t make a judgement that being alone is any better or worse than being with somebody else. Or what if being poor was no better or worse than being rich. Gretchen Rubin, authoring a book titled “the happiness project” writes about Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic:

“Seneca mentioned the practice of some rich men—Epicureans—who fitted out their houses with a “poor man’s room,” so that once a month they could practice being poor.

They did this, apparently, not to deepen their gratitude for the comforts they enjoyed, or from any nostalgie de la boue, but rather to train themselves, through familiarity, not to dread the poverty that might one day befall them.”

It seems to me that these Epicureans had something figured out. They addressed their fear of poverty in a way that told them, “if this happens to me, I’m fine. No worries.”

Cherie Carter-Scott wrote If Life Is a Game, These are the Rules. These ten rules are given as a guideline for living out our lives. You can see a list of the rules here. One of my favorites is rule six:

Rule 6: “There” is no better a place than “here.” When your “there” has become a “here”, you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here.”

The classic, “the grass is greener on the other side.” How many times a day do we say, “once I have ______, then I’ll be complete”? If only.

What’s the remedy to this craziness?

Being at peace with what is. Stop living in a future that you don’t have any control over. The only moment you can manage is this very moment you are in right now. Be present, be alive, love, joy, hunger, thrive and rejoice in it. There is nothing more beautiful than it is right now. Jesus told his followers, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” On a similar note:

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past,
not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles,
but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.” Buddha

Take a moment to stop and look around at your life, your environment, your relationships - in this present moment. Sit down, and take a deep breath. Take a little while to describe the present reality to yourself. Look around the room and describe what you see. Colors, textures, sounds, smells.

Right now, I’m in the Albina Press. It’s a coffee shop in North Portland, Oregon. The customers trickle in and out, ordering their latte and bagel - headed off to their daily grind. The building is a hundred years old or so, with the hardwood floor showing the signs of its age. The guy in the table next to me is reading a hardback book… he’s been here for about an hour now. The smells and sounds are that of the morning. Music, the steaming of milk, the announcement of “12 ounce non-fat latte!”. The air outside is cold, and every once in a while the front door is left open to remind me of how warm it is in here. It’s all beautiful. Gorgeous. Amazing. It’s perfect just as it is.

I could project myself into this afternoon, and keep in mind the labor I have to get done, the code I have to write and the customers that I have to keep happy (as if I have any control over their happiness…) I could tell myself about the rest of this week, getting ready for the meeting with the big client. Or how much stuff needs to be done around the house, or in my relationship or with the truck… I could, but what would the use be?

For right now, I’m going to live in this amazing moment.

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