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College student hoping to expose people to thoughts and ideas they might not necessarily come across on a regular basis.

These Little Wonders...

Ask yourself a question. And be honest with yourself. When was the last time you did something that was purely relaxing, or fun, or exciting, and you did it without thinking about the past or the future? Did you experience the moment without being plagued by various other concerns or thoughts?

So often, we live in this never-ending loop of preoccupation with our responsibilities that we forget one simple truth:

Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee.-- Montaigne

Read that last part again. All else is beyond thee.

You can plan for, and worry on, and think about the future all you want. It's your life, and if you'd like to spend it stressing, then by all means do so. But here's the truth. You don't know what's coming, and you can't do a thing about it.

How often do we get lost in the moments of the past that have embarrassed us, angered us, saddened us, and we spend hours or days thinking about what could have been? What should have been. How we could have done things differently. But here's the truth. What's done is done, and you can't do a thing about it.

Today was an interesting day, for me. It began with me rear-ending someone on the way to school. No damage, no problems, we both went on our own way. Still shook me up a bit. Then, at school, my teacher told our class that we'd have to do an assignment that was essentially pointless, except to take up valuable time that I need to be contributing elsewhere. I was in a funk most of the day.

And then I found it.

I found my moment of Zen. I was walking around campus on this very breezy day, and I was buying a soda from the machine by the business building when I noticed that the breeze was strong and steady there. Being a fan of wind because of its relaxing effects on me, I sat. I ended up sitting there for a half-hour, listening to music and zoning out, without a care in the world.

You see, people always tell you to live in the moment. Embrace and enjoy what you're doing so that you'll never be grouchy or upset, and you can be happy all the time. You know what that is?

That's crap.

The human experience, life, the universe, does not work like that. If everyone was able to trick their own mind into being happy with what they were doing right then and there, nobody would be worried about anything, the word regret would not exist, and wars would never occur.

After that half-hour of, to be cliché, "living in the moment," I felt better than I had all day, rejuvenated, and ready to face the rest of my day.

You see, it's not about enjoying every moment of every day. You can't. You won't. It's impossible. But what's not impossible is taking every opportunity you can find to do something you enjoy and taking pure pleasure from that moment. Don't think about how long you get to do it for. Don't think about what's coming up later in the day, or tomorrow, or how you're going to pay your bills. You spend enough time doing that anyways.

It even leads to eye problems:

If you have one eye on yesterday, and one eye on tomorrow, you're going to be cockeyed today.--Anonymous


Focus solely on your little activity of fun, and embrace it. Hold it dear, and let it fill you with warmth. I promise you, that warmth permeates your being to a far greater extent than you'd expect, and it sustains for quite some time.

Here's to hoping we all find our afternoon breeze.

Good night, and sweet dreams.

------

Thank you for all the quotes I got. I've kept track of them all, and I'll write them at some point. I'm going to do the ones that aren't related to any of my posts first, to keep some variety, but I promise to get to all of them.

I love and appreciate every single one of my 56 followers. Onwards and upwards!

10 Responses so far.

  1. Live in the future, live in fear. Live in the past, live in regret. Live in the moment and you are free.

    Animalistic living would be awesome lol.

  2. Burger says:

    Awesome post. Kinda reminded me of this:

    Tyler Durden: The things you own end up owning you.

  3. You're both absolutely right. It's about recognizing the power you have over your own life.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Very thought provoking. A good read. Thank you for posting this!

  5. Desuuuu says:

    Your style of writing is amazing and your choice of words is wise.
    You had hooked on reading your post since the first sentence.

    I really need to go out and have some time for myself. The loop of college and it's work is just.. exhausting.

  6. Anonymous says:

    beautiful... recently I went to the beach and had a very relaxing time, it was great

  7. noone says:

    December... But I work too much, i should have more than 25 days of paid vacations... But i shouldn't complain Portugal is one of the places with more time of paid vacations.

  8. GFTM says:

    Really thought provoking man, im gonna make sure to follow you!

  9. Play computer games? Gotcha.

  10. Very beautifully said and truly thought provoking. On another note i also say embrace those moments where you feel the need to cry. Get it out then suck it up and move on. Well that's a very simplified version oh how i feel. Great post.

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