now - now 2

We can go through our whole lives worrying about our future happiness,
and totally miss where true peace lives--right here, right now.

Peter Russell

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I don't know about you, but I don't feel that it's my vehicle that is essential.
I don't know about you, but I don't feel that it's my education that is essential.
I don't think what is essential about me is my house or my car or my clothes.
What is essential about me?  Well, I think what is essential is that I live and
embrace life right now, wherever I am.  I grab it in my arms!  Don't spend time
crying about yesterday--yesterday is over with!  I forgive my past.  I forgive the people
who've hurt me.  I don't want to spend the rest of my life blaming and pointing a finger.

Leo Buscaglia
Living, Loving, and Learning

A warm breeze blew through my window like a gentle wave lapping
the sandy shore in summer at low tide, and as I took in a breath of air
that blanketed my body like tall grass in a field I felt for just that
moment in time, like I did when I was a child. I felt that I had not one
worry, not one burden, nothing was on my mind except
that breeze that made the curtains swell like balloons.

Christina Pagliarulo

In the Now, there really is no destination.  Each moment is lived for its own sake,
even as you move toward whatever you many choose to pursue.  When you are
focused on some outcome or achievement--or are looking forward to the day
when you are able to live in conditions that you imagine will be superior to whatever
currently exists--your life right now becomes just an interval on the way to the next event.

Richard Moss

We are all dangling in mid-process between what already
happened (which is just a memory) and what might happen
(which is just an idea).  Now is the only time anything
happens.  When we are awake in our lives, we know what's
happening.  When we're asleep, we don't see what's right in front of us.

Sylvia Boorstein

You spend very little time in the present moment.
Reality exists only in the present moment.
Therefore you spend very little time in reality.

Leonard Jacobson

As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are.
Otherwise you will miss most of your life.

the Buddha

We can smile, breathe, walk, and eat our meals in a way that allows us to be
in touch with the abundance of happiness that is available.  We are very good
 at preparing to live, but not very good at living.  We know how to sacrifice ten
years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car,
a house, and so on.  But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in
the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive.  Every breath
we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity.
We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.

Thich Nhat Hanh

When we yield to discouragement it is usually because
we give too much thought to the past and to the future.

St. Therese of Lisieux

When you live in the present moment, time stands still.  Accept your circumstances
and live them.  If there is an experience ahead of you, have it!  But if
worries stand in your way, put them off until tomorrow.  Give yourself
a day off from worry.  You deserve it.  Some people live with a low-grade
anxiety tugging at their spirit all day long.  They go to sleep with it,
wake up with it, carry it around at home, in town, to church,
and with friends.  Here’s a remedy:  Take the present moment
and find something to laugh at.  People who laugh, last.

Barbara Johnson

"This very instant" is all we have.  We make plans for the future, we
invoke memories of the past, but really, all we have to deal with
and to act in is the moment at hand.  We cannot stop its going; we
cannot hurry the next moment on its way.  Like everyone else in the
world, we're partners in the dull, humdrum, dazzling, fabulous,
totally unpredictable moment.
And if we have a time that is "our time," it's right now.  It has to be,
because there isn't any other.  Maybe we've had times in the past that
were special for us; maybe the future will hold precious moments.
But the only time that is truly "our time" is this time, where we
are, right now.  And what we do with this time is ours to decide.

unattributed

    now - now 2

Walking meditation is a way of waking up to the wonderful moment
we are living in.  If our minds are caught up and preoccupied with our
worries and our suffering, or if we distract ourselves with other things
while walking, we can't practice mindfulness; we can't enjoy the
present moment.  We're missing out on life.  If we're awake, then we'll
see this is a wonderful moment that life has given us, the only moment
in which life is available.  We can value each step we take, and each
step can bring us happiness because we're in touch with life, with the
source of happiness, and with our beloved planet.

Thich Nhat Hanh
How to Walk

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Are you present in this moment, right here, right now?
Or are you remembering what you didn't do yesterday,
thinking about what you have to do tomorrow,
regretting what you did last week.  If you are in any of these places,
you are not here, right now in the fullness of this moment.
The richness of the present is here.  The fullness of now is present.
If you are not here now, it means you could be missing the love,
joy, peace and brand-new ideas that are here right now.
Why not take a moment to gather yourself, to pull yourself together,
to collect all of your thoughts and feelings in this time and place?

Iyanla Vanzant

Only one person in a thousand knows the trick of really living in
the present.  Most of us spend fifty-nine minutes an hour living
in the past, with regret for lost joys or shame for things badly
done (both utterly useless and weakening) or in a future which
we either long for or dread. . . . There is only one minute in which
you are alive, this minute, here and now.  The only way to live
is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle.  Which
is exactly what it is—a miracle and unrepeatable.

Storm Jameson

Too many people not only try to hold on to happiness, but they
try to recapture happiness from times before.  "You can't
go home again" is a very true saying, for truly going home would
be an attempt to recapture the past.  The past is gone, and
today is here.  We're older and wiser and more capable of taking
all we can from the present moment, so here the
present moment is--what are you waiting for?

tom walsh

Our suffering stems from ignorance.  We react because we do not know what
we are doing, because we do not know the reality of ourselves.  The mind spends
most of the time lost in fantasies and illusions, reliving pleasant or unpleasant
experiences and anticipating the future with eagerness or fear.  While lost in such
cravings or aversions, we are unaware of what is happening now, what we are
doing now.  Yet surely this moment, now, is the most important for us.  We cannot
live in the past; it is gone.  Nor can we live in the future; it is forever beyond our
grasp.  We can live only in the present.  If we are unaware of our present actions,
we are condemned to repeating the mistakes of the past and can never succeed
in attaining our dreams for the future.  But if we can develop the ability to be
aware of the present moment, we can use the past as a guide for ordering our
actions in the future, so that we may attain our goal.

S.N. Goenka

God puts you where God needs you.  You are where you are
supposed to be.  The job you are doing may not be any easier
on account of this, indeed it may be harder, even more urgent,
but now you are centered, focused, clear.  So this is where I
am supposed to be.  I always thought I was supposed to be
somewhere else, doing something else, being someone else.
But I realize now that I was mistaken.  This does not mean
that I can't or will not be doing something else.
Just right now, I am where God wants me.

Lawrence Kushner

The power of memories and expectations is such that for most human beings
the past and the future are not as real, but more real than the present.

Alan Watts

The spiritual is not to be separated from the material, nor the wonderful
from the ordinary.  We need, above all, to disentangle ourselves from
habits of speech and thought which set the two apart, making it impossible
for us to see that this--the immediate, everyday, and present experience--
is IT, the entire and ultimate point of the existence of the universe.

There is only one time that is important--Now!  It is the most important time because
it is the only time when we have any power.  The most necessary person is the one
with whom you are, for no person knows whether he or she will ever have dealings
with anyone else:  and the most important affair is, to do the person good,
because for that purpose alone were human beings sent into this life!

Wayne Dyer

Each of us makes the choice about how we feel, though it often seems
to be controlled by other people or events.  We can alter our perception.
We can restore our balance.  We can choose peace of mind.  We can
choose the texture of a day.
   Each day seems to have a life of its own, but we are that life.  We can
choose to change the texture at any point.  Take a deep breath, stop for
a cup of tea, smile at someone, think of something that brings you joy,
plan a dream. . . . This minute, experience the part of the journey you are
in now.
   Make this minute what you want for a lifetime.  Alter the texture of
your day in any way you choose, but recognize that the texture
and the minute are yours.

Jennifer James
Success Is the Quality of Your Journey

Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and
unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge
when it comes along. This applies to play as well as work. A day
merely survived is no cause for celebration. You are not here to fritter
away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so
much by making a slight change in your routine. No more busy work.
No more hiding from success. Leave time, leave space, to grow.
Now. Now! Not tomorrow!

Og Mandino

now - now 2

Remember this:  Now is the only time you have.  When God
created the universe, it was now.  You can't say to creation
and energy, "I'll do it later, not now."  Later doesn't exist.
Creation doesn't know anything but now.  Whenever you get
around to doing what you want to do, it will be now.  The
things you need to do to live a happier, more fulfilling life--the
only time you can possible start doing them is now.

Bernie Siegel

My past and future enhance my experience of the world, but it is
only in the present moment that I co-create my life.  Behind me are
"the things I cannot change," which a familiar prayer reminds me
to accept.  I accept them, and I learn from them.  Ahead of me lie
infinite possibilities and ideas waiting to be accessed through
prayer, affirmation and action.  And, in this present moment, I
find God.  I affirm only good, knowing that all good things
are available to me.

unattributed (the Daily Word)

To a large degree, the measure of our peace of mind is determined
by how much we are able to live in the present moment.  Irrespective
of what happened yesterday or last year, and what may or may not
happen tomorrow, the present moment is where you are--always!

Richard Carlson