Prior to lotteries, promotions or on-line dating, I wonder how often individuals looked beyond the present to the time when they could expect happiness to arrive?
Even in things like dietary change, how often do we think to ourselves, “well, I can’t start yet because we have company coming next week and there will be a lot of food” or “the holidays are almost upon us so there is no sense in giving up on pastries until that’s over with.”
But the truth is, once the so-called ideal time comes, there is a new challenge that gets in the way of our plans. So, we defer our plans yet again to a more opportune time. But it never comes.
How often have I thought to myself, someday when I have the means, I will buy some land and engage in what I love most—the spiritual practice of growing healthy food so that I can sustain myself and practice generosity.
But if I wait for the right 3 acres to become available and affordable, I could waste a lot of years waiting. And I do have a yard. Very small but a yard nevertheless. People grow food on much less.
The right time is now. In The Art of Peace, Morihei Ueshiba offers a profound quote:
One does not need buildings money, power, or status to practice the Art of Peace. Heaven in right where you are standing and that is the place to train.
Would I love watching the first signs of germination in a large plot any more than I would in my narrow strip of backyard? Would the obligation to pull weeds be any more or less fulfilling on 3 acres than on 10 square meters of soil I turned over myself? Only if I am attached to the outcome.
If you are deferring your happiness to the time when conditions are ideal, you will watch your life pass by and with it, every opportunity to make your life what it could be.
As Eckhart Tolle explained in A New Earth, the present moment is all that exists. We must enjoy this moment because when the future arrives, it too, will be the present.
When I worked a nine-to-five, I found myself always wanting to get through the day to get ‘me’ time in the evening. My colleagues and I couldn’t wait for the weekend to arrive.
What were we waiting for? To use that time for self-improvement? Inevitably, we were worn out so we didn’t use the available time properly when it came. We were just preserving our energy to plod through our week. Some of my peers bought lottery tickets in a wildly improbable bid to escape the daily grind and find happiness.
On the other hand, others are good at making use of free time—doing volunteer work, going on family outings, spending time in nature or on self-improvement. The worst of us used this time for emotional eating or recovering from hangovers, just in time to get back to an unfulfilling existence. An existence that could have been fulfilling if we allowed ourselves to be present in each moment.
The time is now, friends. There is no better time to live your life.
References
Tolle, E. (2018). A new earth: Awakening to your life’s purpose. Penguin Books.
Ueshiba, M., & Stevens, J. (2023). The art of peace. Shambhala.