Present is a gift you can treasure only now
While nibbling on snacks at the airport, I couldn’t help eavesdropping on the conversation between a mother and her college-going daughter. She was whining about the food, the draconian faculty and the general discomfort that living away from home entails. She employed every trick in the book to sway her mother’s firm decision of sending her away to college, but to no avail.
As a child, I remember being eager to get into college as I was enamoured by my collegegoing cousins. Once there, I would abhor the idea of leaving home for the unpalatable food, the dingy hostel room and the disciplinary lifestyle that made me feel like I had gone right back to school. Then there was the impelling prospect of adulthood that I pined for, which to me could be availed only after graduating from college. Of course, we know that only the sheltered yearn for the charms of adulthood.
Today, I would kill to go back to those wonder years and not change a single thing about them. It’s so disdainful that we never truly enjoy the place that we are at in our lives because there is always a better place that we’ve set our sights upon. The present is always whiled away either in traumas of the past or musings about the future. Author Eckhart Tolle has written a book about living in the present and it’s one of the most uplifting reads. By living in the moment and truly enjoying what we have and training our minds not to reminisce or fantasise, we can beat the mass depression that has engulfed mankind today.
Too often, my six-year-old daughter would ask me when she would be 16. Upon enquiring about the reason behind this outburst, the answer would invariably be about how she would be allowed to possess a cell phone or stay up till late or have sleepovers. That’s when I intervene and list the wonderful things she could enjoy now and probably won’t once she grows up, like crouching in her tent house and playing house or playing on the slide and the see-saw or playing dress-up.
It’s crucial to value the present and not keep foraying into the traumas or pleasures of our past or the possibilities that our future holds for us, for our own mental well being. We could do wonders with our time and calibre if we channelised our energy into the now.
As a recent mother to my third baby, I’m struggling with weight issues and whenever I come across any clothes from my pre-pregnancy days, I can’t help but feel unbelievable awe at how thin I was. The remarkable thing here is that I don’t remember ever being happy with my weight or body, which is sad as today the prospect of fitting right back into my old clothes is exhilarating for me, the exact size my old self was so derisive of.
Too many women I know are not happy with the way they look and do not value what they have. In our lives, happiness is always a promotion away or associated with a bigger car, a better house and the list never ends. It is not associated with what we have or do now.
So, shed the grudges, sow the seed of forgiveness and embrace your present as a gift you can treasure only now. The now is where you will find the mystical happily-ever-after of the fairy tales.
BY LIVING IN THE MOMENT AND ENJOYING WHAT WE HAVE, WE CAN BEAT THE DEPRESSION THAT’S ENGULFED MANKIND