Memories (Part 1)

Proverbs 10:7 "The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot."

We scrutinize and dramatize the insignificant annoyances in our lives until we’re blue in the face, and then we sit back and scratch our heads in bewilderment of how unfulfilling and empty life feels. But the older we grow, the quieter we tend to become, and the less pointless drama, distraction, and busyness we tend to engage in.  Life humbles us gradually as we age.  We begin to realize just how much nonsense we’ve wasted time on an nd we begin to refocus our attention on what truly matters.

Truth be told, the afternoon and evening always understand what the morning never even suspected, but the morning can plan better for the afternoon and evening.

As time passes, you naturally have more of it behind you and less of it in front of you.  The distant future, then, gradually has less value to you personally.  That doesn’t really matter, because the good life always begins right now, when you stop waiting for a better one.  Some people wait all day for 5pm, all week for Friday, all year for the holidays, all their lives for happiness, but you don’t have to be one of them.  Don’t wait until your life is almost over to realize how good it has been.

A life uncluttered by most of the meaningless drama, distraction, and busyness people fill their lives with, leaves us with space for what’s truly meaningful.  A life that isn’t constant rushing, worrying and stressed, but instead filled with contemplation, creation, and connection with the people and projects that matter most to us. By redefining our priorities, and building healthy rituals to back them up, we’ve literally are able to change our lives.  

If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed and stressed out a lot lately, I highly recommend you rethink how you’re spending your time, and replace the meaningless with the meaningful. Make memories that are blessed and not cursed.

Think about it:

-How often do you engage in the exchange of valueless gossip?

-How often are you thinking about other things when someone is talking to you?

Do you check social media apps on your phone when you should be spending time with your loved ones?

-Do you send the occasional text message while driving?

The biggest cost of filling your life with drama, distraction, and busyness (assuming you don’t crash from the texting and driving), is a gradual, long-term decline of your effectiveness and happiness.  When you get in the habit of persistently dividing your attention, you’re partially engaged in every activity, but rarely focused on any one.  This lack of focus eventually trips you up and brings you down to your knees.

The efficiency of your time relies heavily on the elimination of non-essentials, so you can focus exclusively on the one thing that actually matters in each moment.  While plenty of books have been written on this subject, let me give you the very basics of what to practice:

-Identify what’s most important to you, and eliminate as much as you possibly can of everything else.  In other words, be ruthless about putting first things first.  Say “no” to unnecessary commitments that do not support your priorities.

-When you start an important activity, turn to it with your full attention and set a conscious intention to be fully present with the act. Don't do anything but this one activity for a set time.  You might think, “Just write” or “Just run” or “Just be here with this amazing child of mine.

-When you notice your mind drifting and thinking about something else, or if something happens and your attention momentarily gets pulled elsewhere, just notice.  Take a deep breath and return to being fully present with the activity.

-Do your best to empty your mind of any preconceived notions about the activity and just be curious about how the activity is truly unfolding right now.  Allow yourself to be moved and surprised by it.

-Treat each moment with reverence, as if you are one with what’s happening.

-See the brightness of the activity you’re focused on that underlies everything else happening in your life.

The bottom line here is that too often our minds are set on getting somewhere else.  Too often another beautiful day comes to an end with hundreds of unnoticed moments behind us. We didn’t notice them because they were insignificant to us.  And over time our entire lives become a massive pile of unnoticed and insignificant moments on our way to more important things.  Then the important things get rushed through too; to get to the next one, and the next, until our time is up and we’re left questioning where it all went.

But it doesn’t have to be this way anymore.

This moment is your life, and you can make the best of it.  The underlying key is to realize that you are not on your way somewhere else.  Right now is not just a stepping-stone to another place; it is the ultimate destination, and you are already here. Your memories will stand justly if you make them correctly.