I've just realised it's nearly the end of September and I've yet to write a blog post this month. So, returning to an old aid of inspiration, I put my MP3 player on random, choosing to use the song it stops at as a theme... The song I landed on was 'Possibility' by Lykke Li.
And that got me to thinking, is it ever really possible to 'live in the moment', completely in the moment, without thoughts of the past or the future, clouding our judgement, or expectations?
I don't think I'm particularly good at 'living in the moment', though the older I get, the more I appreciate simpler things, which kind of controls your expectations. I'm quite fond of the word 'possibility' as it holds a certain exciting sense of anticipation... But if you believe the buddhists, true happiness is found if you learn to live in the present moment, without dwelling on the past, or worrying about the future.
That got me to thinking some more, and I came to the conclusion that I probably am happiest when I get totally lost in a moment. This can happen when I'm engrossed in artwork, writing, watching an enjoyable film, listening to music, and most powerful - when engaged in conversation with someone who truly engages me - that sensation where the rest of the room disappears and you're only aware that you're experiencing the sensation if someone tries to cut in on your conversation.
To me, those are the times where I know I'm truly living in the moment and it's a good feeling.
This weekend I watched a couple of interesting documentaries about the West Memphis Three (a brief summary: this is a famous case where three teenage boys were convicted of murdering three young boys, based on a lot of flimsy circumstancial evidence). I don't want to go into too much detail about the case, as that would take a whole other blog post, but I really liked this quote, which Eddie Vedder from Pear Jam (who supported the accused), read from Damien Echols' (the one sentenced to life) journal:
'There's no such thing as time.
There's no such thing as the past, it only exists in the memory.
There's no such thing as the future, it's only in our imagination.
If our watches were truly accurate the only thing they would ever say, is now.'
I'm going to end with an extract from T.S Elliot's 'Four Quartets' as I really like the last line:
I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope,
for hope would be hope for the wrong thing.
And wait without love. For love would be love,
of the wrong thing.
Yet there is faith.
But the faith and the hope and the love, are all in the waiting.
And the darkness shall be the light
and the stillness the dancing.
T.S. Elliot
