Picture: Jeanne Samary in a Low-Necked Dress by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
*************************************************************************************
*************************************************************************************
*
We can’t go backward. That’s what life seems to be telling me these days. We can’t dwell in the past: we can’t inhabit the past, simply because it doesn’t exist. We have only this precious, shimmering, present moment. Even nostalgia, sweet and sour, is experienced now. Because now is all we have, now is the gateway towards infinity, and, guess what, it’s always open. Always. All the limitations we see are a by-product of our conditioning, of the collective beliefs we have accepted as true. But the essence of things is always there for us. Try this: plug in your headphones and play a song you like; if it has lyrics, ignore the language, listen to the music as if it were a whole, like birdsong; listen to it fully without judgments, mental commentaries, anecdotes, memory references; anytime a thought pops up, go back gently to the music. Now you’re really listening to the song, without the filter of your mind. The chattering mind is a powerful tool, but it can become a tricky distraction from what we are experiencing now. Moreover, the mechanical mind can only stir up a soup of what you already know – the old, the past. Even when we think about the future, we see it through our old dusty glasses. Is it a good thing? A bad thing? Neither of the two: you choose. Nothing is inherently good or bad – only the mind judges. When we silence the mind, we recognize that everything is neutral. That being said, I invite you, as I invite myself, to be present, aware of the here and now. I invite us to act unpredictably. To act boldly. To shake the current state of things. Because right now we have infinite possibilities.
Open your eyes and look ahead.
*
Herons