Here and Now

Vinny Khinda

October 24, 2020

Do we often enough stop to think about how amazing it is that we are here, alive and present in this moment? Of course, we are all here, it stands to reason, I have written this, and you are reading it.

But how many of us choose to live in the only moment where there is life: the present moment; choose to let go of our painful chains to the past, and instead let the present determine our future? How many of us choose to live and love right here, right now? How many of us choose to slow down enough to connect with the gift we are given in this moment? I am not perfect at it either, am still a work in progress and need to take some meaningful steps in this direction as life goes on. But consciously, consistently and surely, I am now increasingly inclined upon learning the art of ‘choosing to be here and now’. Because there is nowhere else I can be or should be.

Artists, athletes, professional shooters, surgeons and anyone who loves their job know the feeling of losing one’s self in the current moment to full concentration. But probably the cherry-on-the-cake goes to the chess-players. They are a class act as far as living-in-the-moment goes. If we are more intentional in our experiences, any kind of involvement, or even our leisure pursuits we are passionate about, could be meditation, prayer, painting, photography, writing, music, we will notice that our presence becomes denser and heavier, more grounded, and there is a sense of bliss and abundance that accompany it.

Unfortunately, many people spend too much time either thinking about the past or worrying about the future at the expense of fully living and appreciating the current moment. Mark Twain famously said: “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”

We need to live in the present, rather we must become the present. We need to launch ourselves on every wave and find eternity in each moment. We need to be in, here and now, and live our lives in this millisecond. ‘It’s not in the life, it’s in the living’ – Raheel Farooq. Trust that you are exactly where you need to be, appreciate the pit-stop in this journey of life, even if this was not the place you wanted to be in. Because, as they say, every season serves a purpose. Trust that the creation has put you in your present situation so that you experience what you needed to experience, so that you could learn what you must learn, in order to become the person you need to become so that you could create everything you want for your life. And so, as Marty Rubin says, ‘Seize the day, then let it go’.

Living in the moment does not mean that we turn complacent and stop planning for our future. No. Plan we must. Plan on creating a better life for ourselves and our family. But we need to keep the awareness that we will not live in the future. That we will not destroy our today for some illusionary mirage in the distant future. Plan. But don’t wait for success at some future point. Rather we must develop a successful relationship with the present moment and be fully present in whatever we are doing. This could be the definition of success.

‘I have not always been what I should have been. But I’m happy who I am, here and now’ – Grampa Ken

Lets talk about past. Someone remarked so appropriately, ‘I have a past. But I don’t live there anymore’. Living in the past is a mistake that many of us make so very often. It only brings misery, destroying our beautiful present. Have you ever thought about the fact that this constant urge to keep reliving the painful events from the past could be a form of self-abuse? It can actually be more destructive than physical harm. We need to forget the past mistakes, forget the failures and forget everything except what we are going to do now, go ahead and do it. “We fall back into the past, we jump ahead into the future, and in this we lose our entire lives. Anxiety, the illness of our time, comes primarily from our inability to live in the present moment” – Thich Nhat Hanh.

The challenge is to find ways to bring ourselves back from this constant struggle of juggling between past and future. How can we remember to come back to the present? How do we bring our minds and our bodies into the same place, this one place where we are right now? Probably we need to increase our appreciation of what is happening in and around us in this present moment. We need to start enjoying the little things in life, for one day we will look back and realize they were the big things.

As children we all knew this secret, the one of living in the moment. But as we grow older, all of that God given wisdom goes for a toss. Children can be a great teacher. Probably we need to go back to them for some life lessons. I recently got one and would like to share. Couple of months ago, after parking my car one late evening soon after dusk and immersed in my thoughts I was slowly walking past a group of, mostly Jordanian children, engrossed in playing their games, when a 5-something girl suddenly pointed her finger towards the sky and shouted at the top of her voice, “Mashallah” ! I almost feel off my feet, startled by the sudden explosion of this joyful expression from a tiny soul whose beautiful opera-singer-like voice defied the years she had spent on this planet. Suddenly stopping in my tracks, I looked up to the sky in the direction she had pointed at, but saw nothing. Curious to the core, I asked her what was out there that she had found so intriguing. Her response, “Look at that beautiful cloud”. I looked up again, but this time I indeed saw the miracle of creation, and it was beautiful beyond words. And then I too mumbled, “Mashallah”... As I said that, this group of about 8-10 kids, all erupted in unison, playfully repeating the expression multiple times. Among them was a 3-year old boy and unable to pronounce the expression in its correct form, kept repeating, “Maasalla”... Since then, it has kind of become a game, whenever I go out and any of those kids happen to be around, we all start shouting at the top of our voices (and almost dancing)…. Maasalla, Maasalla, Maasalla and trust me its so much fun and so liberating. This little girl, who I later learnt had beautifully been named Selma by her parents, has ended up giving me such a profound lesson in how to be Here and Now. How to feel the pulse of every moment, and appreciate the wonderful life unfolding all around us in its myriad, beautiful and magnificent forms.

I will say no further and leave you guys with this beautiful poem by an author unknown.

This Moment is My Life

I let myself be drawn into the present moment with ease. Here and Now, joy is alive and pulsating in harmony, with my own heartbeat.

There is nothing to judge, no label to give. No thought to obsess over – only this life to live.

Wherever I am, here I stand, firmly planted. I am the soul of this place, a drop of this ocean. Here lies every grain of sand.

There is lightness here that is only found here. And it is enough. There is healing here, and freedom, and there is nothing to hold on to, and nothing holding on to me. This is enough.