The essence of “living in the moment” is a conundrum to many of the humans. But, I also believe that being fond of history – however young or old – is miraculous, at times. Most of these miracles happen in our daily lives and we don’t give a dime about them.
Take for instance, our habit of sub-conscious learning. And good grace, we avoid many small and large accidents because of it, from not chopping our finger next time we chop ladyfingers to dodging a car heading towards us in the same lane to charming someone with words.
But this habit of evolving is something we want to get rid of, over time. Sometimes, it is too overwhelming, sometimes we do not want an opinion that differs from ours, sometimes we’re just too bored and want stronger than usual to take a nap.
Learning can be distasteful also because we fear failure in learning accurately. We want others to see our little knowledge through a magnifying glass but when the time comes for a test, we want to evade tough showdowns and run home to the shortest distance possible.
Our attention deficiency serves us a Mocktail of fear and a desire for safety, and another shot of a much more perplexing set of feelings and their corresponding hormones. The moment we head towards the fear-causing factor, our heart pounces back with feeling of anxiety and bringing along an empty flash of the confidence potion.
It’s hard to believe for me that all of these feeling would be a part of our bodies if the universal conscience – you call it god, I call it tree, wind, river, mountain – designed us to live only in the moment. Only if excelling in the moment mattered.
This leads to two thoughts at brief contemplation – one, there is no universal conscience and two, if there is one, it is trying to remind us that winning or losing is not the aim. Instead, learning something for another futile fight ahead.
Forming chains of empathy and having the openness and the space to welcome other thoughts. This will only come when we have a desire to have more curiosity, being wary of the chain but not being a rigid one.
It’s time for a nap.
