SEEKING PEACE AND JOY—THE FUTURE IS NOW
I was sitting in the first desk in the second row from the window during “Senior religion” when I should have been thinking about my future—I’m talking about eternal future when it dawned on me. “How old would I be in the year 2000? Holy Gregorian calendars Batman! If I lived that long I would be ancient.
Speaking of calendars—somewhere around 270 years ago the calendar we use in the “West” went through a major upheaval. You see we were using the Julian Calendar (named after a famous. Roman leader or an orange drink you could get in almost any mall in the 1980s and 90s). well in 1752 astronomers, Kings, and the pope —guess what his name was? Hint see name of Calendar argued —and won—that we needed a major adjustment in our year. Talk about change—the New Year was shifted from March 25th to January 1. Can you imagine St. Patrick’s Day and New Years Eve being a week apart? That would hardly allow time for the hangover to disparate and the liver to recover. Leap year was adopted adding a day to the calendar at the end of February every fourth year. Now here’s the big change. The whole Western (Roman Catholic and Protestant world skipped 11 days in September! Now just think a bit about the magnitude of that. What if your birthday was one of those 11 days? Oh and what if you looked at birth records for that month —what temporal craziness? If you were born on the first day after the skip you may have been. One day older than your cousin and yet in the future your birthday would be a whopping 12 days later. Just think about all the wedding announcements and other news—Wow! Well it’s time to move forward, but not a week and a half...
If history is the present meanings we have assigned to things that happened before the current moment, then wha’t’s the future?
The future becomes the current meanings we attach to the consequences or results of our present combined with the actions that a experienced “between” now and the series of “neowS” that wil probably come after now. Let’s say for the sake of argument that you haven’t figured out time travel and can’t act in the future (have you seen TV lately?—there’s a lot of people who can’t act now :)—
Okay what does any of this mean? It is a natural activity for most people to want the things. We do right now to matter and to have on-going impact. In short, we want to change the present and the future. So what we do is pick a place on the calendar and start acting as if we can therefore impact a date later in our life. In real terms we rehearse for being who we imagine we want to be. Now that works if the circumstances we encounter on our journey call for the person we have practiced to be, but that doesn’t always come about so we start to imagine multiple futures at any given time and spend time rehearsing for multiple possibilities most of which will of course never happen and had no chance of ever happening. So these are natural human things and can certainly. Influence how/when we experience peace and joy.
So is there a way to break this cycle of preparing. And practicing for futures that will not come to pass? I wish I had that magic wand and could simply wave into existence the perfect solution—but wishing hasn’t made it so thus far. What has worked for me (and the last time I noticed this is my blog lol) is restricting. The future. What? How do you limit time? Well by, when possible, only concentrating on what happens in the next day or so and a shorter time frame than that sometimes. If I can focus on the details of what is happening right now (mindfulness some say) then it limits the time I devote. To multiple futures. In fact, it often eliminates thinking about any future and because of that there is no frustration or disappointment about “the future” that has now become the “now.”
Are there things I’m not prepared for because I haven’t gotten ready? Yep, and yet it is often (not always) possible to deal with them with some clarity because. My mind isn’t cluttered up with a mountain of “what ifs.”
When what is happening right now isn’t the most pleasant—because sometimes are that way—I have a tendency to imagine all kinds of futures because the present isn’t to great and it creates hope or a feeling of control over what is going to happen. This in turn boosts the feeling of security and confidence. These are good (value judgment) to have so I’m attempting to reflect briefly on my ability to learn as the prompts to feel this security and confidence rather than imagining brighter days. In recent times, this has been somewhat successful as the ability to adapt and count on friends has become a central theme in my existence and that makes any possible future a little brighter.
So.... this has taken up enough of your “now” for now... to summarize the future is a place we do a lot of practicing for in the present and tha’s okay except practicing for a broad range of things reduces the chances. We will be experiencing peace or joy in. What ever happens. Believing in yourself and. Others can. Lead to a shorter window and a sense of promise and hope just as strong as constant rehearsals of likely (and not very likely) scenarios. I’m not always the best at this, but I try and it helps to focus a lot on the details of what’s happening now. This focus sometimes makes your “time space” vastly different. From those. Around you so be prepared to understand. That.
In the end you can experiment with this time frame and have your own “flux capacitor” so to speak. For truly, as long as you are you, your future will come no matter. How much or how little you are, or can, prepare for. It—best of luck.
More (in the coming present) more commmonly known as soon
Have a great today
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