Take an honest look at your life, your thoughts and feelings. Where are you living? Do you spend most of your time in the past, regretting what you’ve done, angry at what has been done or grieving what has been lost? Are you focused on the future, worrying about what may come, feeling anxious about possible results or planning for all scenarios? Or are you living in the present, focusing on this moment and what you are doing and experiencing now?

Too often we are looking behind us or ahead of us and we forget to enjoy the journey. We forget to look at all that is going on around us. Instead of enjoying each step we take toward our goals, we look at how far we have to go or what might be. Instead of appreciating what we have around us, we grieve over what we have lost.

I love the metaphor Alan Watts presents for this concept (you can watch an excerpt here). Picture a boat moving in the water. The boat symbolizes the present moment while the wake is the past. Nothing you can do can change the wake (past). You can change the direction you are headed. If you have a destination in mind (future), be open and willing to change course if a new destination arises, or an obstacle presents itself.

I would love to know: which part are you? Are you the wake or the boat? Are you the destination?

“You don’t define yourselves in terms of what you’ve done before but in terms of what you’re doing now. And that is liberation from the ridiculous situation of being a dog wagged by its tail.” Alan Watts

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