New Year, New Moment

Even though we are embarking on a new year, which sets our gaze and our hopes on the future, I think the most important time is now. To make a financial analogy, "yesterday is a cancelled check, tomorrow is a promissory note, and today is all the cash we have on hand." (I don't know who I'm quoting, but thanks to whomever it was.)

I like to have ideas and principles encapsulated in statements that are clear enough, and succinct enough, to be easy to remember. That's the only way they become part of us, and affect our lives. The quote above has helped many times to keep me aware of the moment I'm in.

No one can have a better past. It's common to stew over past mistakes, poor decisions, poor judgment, unfairness to others, moments of dishonesty, selfishness, or unkindness. None of us is free of things we regret, that give us a pang when we remember them, but, really, the only thing we can do about the past, is to do a better job of today.

We have hopes for the future, especially at the beginning of a new year, but the future is always ahead of where we actually are, and, in that sense, beyond our control. The present moment is all we can control, so to affect the future, we must be conscious of what we are doing in the moments when we  decide whether to be kind or not, honest or not, fair or not.

Let's hear it for the present moment. What a gift, and what an opportunity each moment is.