Essential Moments

by Joanna on November 30, 2009

Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in yr morning ~ Kerouac

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land, there is no other life but this. ~Thoreau

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again. And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. ~ Picasso

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J.D. Meier 11.30.09 at 10:26 am

Powerful words and so true.
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Gerry @ home fragrance oils 11.30.09 at 12:47 pm

This is a good post sadly most of us live either in the past or the future and forget the present is the only time we can control.

Gerry @ home fragrance oils 11.30.09 at 1:04 pm

I think as we get older we become aware of the need to live in the now we should howerver try to avoid looking back to our past or as Bruce Springsteen put it to stop telling “boring stories of glory days.
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Karen Putz 11.30.09 at 2:07 pm

What wonderful words to wake up to this morning!
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Karen Swim 11.30.09 at 8:48 pm

Joanna, a powerful reminder to live fully, deeply each moment. I had a long chat with my Dad the other day (he has dementia) and he was lucid and lively. I was so thankful for his words, our talk, the time shared. That night I wrote a reminder in my journal that each day is not a dress rehearsal but the live performance. Thank you for reminding us of this today.
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Deborah Sudul 12.01.09 at 5:41 am

Picasso was not entirely right to be so dismissive of mathematics and geography, but he does have a point.
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Paul 12.01.09 at 12:19 pm

Inspiration for difficult times Joanna.

What words of your own would you also choose?
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sheila glazov 12.01.09 at 1:49 pm

I love the syncronicity…”essential” keeps coming up in my life and my writing. Thank. Sheila

George Angus 12.01.09 at 2:30 pm

That’s beautiful. It reminds me of my six year old trying to figure out when the future would get here, when the present is, and what is past. It was a very interesting comment but it did culminate in mild admonishing on my part to live in the present, for that is all we have – we cannot live dwelling on what has occurred or what might happen at some future point.

George
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Joanna 12.05.09 at 12:08 pm

@ JD they rang bells for me too :-)

@ Gerry, hello, and thanks for the feedback. I like to be reminded of this too – it seems so hard for us to remember this lesson!

@ Karen (Putz), as was seeing your friendly face here :-)

@ Karen (Swim), watching my mum live with dementia is having the same effect on me, forcing me into the present, what we have, here, now, not what we’re losing / lost. It’s odd but also wonderful how illness can teach us this, however hard it also is.

@ Deborah, I think there are ways you could teach mathematics and geography that would still make kids go ‘wow!!! the world is amazing’ – the point is not to reduce everything to what’s already known in books, rather than discoverable and creatable by going out and living in the world. Thanks for stopping by and chipping in :-)

@ Paul – interesting question… maybe I’ll find the answer when I dig through the archives for the group writing project.

@ Sheila, it’s so much fun when we get those messages from the universe, isn’t it? :-)

@ George, that sounds like a fun conversation :-) Actually I think kids are pretty good at living fully immersed in the moment… it’s adults who tend to drag them back out of it again and focus forward.

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