Right Here Right Now

Right Here Right Now

It's this moment that counts. This moment when nothing else exists but you and I and ... this. We are taught to live in the present. To manifest and explore the future, to use the past's building blocks to create our foundation, but not to live in either the Past or the Future, to truly live in the Present.  Tougher than you think, to fully appreciate when you are; to fully embrace this moment. Maybe it's because this moment is fleeting. The river of our future rushes through us in this moment to become the calm waters of our past; but this moment is fleeting. You almost can't catch it. You have to decide to just experience it, not think about it, not color it with the wetness of  what will be or what has been otherwise ... poof ... you'll miss it.

You literally can't be thinking about this moment and experience this moment at the same time. Right Now is like so much gossamer, constantly being born and evaporating in the same instant. But we constantly distract ourselves from this moment by reminiscing the past or exploring the future. We need to do both those things, dream of yesterday and manifest tomorrow. It's the living in yesterday or tomorrow that's the problem.

Maybe it's about taking a step away from the present moment and just watching ourselves from a far. Maybe the only way to experience Right Here, Right Now is by disconnecting ourselves to Needing to Experience Right Here, Right Now, and just watch ourselves dip our toes into the river of our lives.

Van Halen had an old song "Right Now" that had some great lyrics:

"Right now, C'mon,it's everything
Right now, Catch a magic moment, do it
Right here and now, It means everything"

Right here, right now does mean everything. But right now is that gossamer package of yesterday, tomorrow and this moment all wrapped up.

So here's my question: "How can you get more Right Now Moments into your life without letting go of the astonishing river of your past and the excitement of the rapids of your future?" I've been struggling with this lately. Maybe the answer is just intention. Intentionally stepping away from the thinking of Right Now and just experiencing it on purpose. Stepping into the joys of the past when you want, intentionally being curious about where you will go next.

And never forget Right here and now, It means everything.

See you on the wire

-- Steven Cardinale

Brilliant Dash

 It’s not the day we are born. It’s not the day we are finally laid to rest. Neither of those days are THE most important day of our lives. It isn’t the day we graduate from college, or the day we land the big job, or the day we get married, or have our children. There is no single most important day of our lives. It is ALL the days we live an Astonishing Brilliance in the dash between birth and death.

Have you ever had a day that was an astonishing brilliance? You know where the magic of the world woke up to you: A day when the colors were brighter, the tastes richer, the scents more intoxicating. Something got you there. Something got you to pay attention to the astonishing brilliance of the day. And then that paying attention moved you so that you started to shimmer in your own way: You became more brilliant as well.

What was it that got you there? Was it an experience? A taste? A someone? What was it that finally calmed the storm between your ears and let you connect with something deeper?

If the astonishing brilliance of our dash is THE thing that matters then the more shimmering moments we have the more brilliant our brief time here becomes.

This became abundantly clear to me today. Today is the day my mother died. And although I grieved her loss in the morning, by the afternoon I was remembering the light of her dash: The dash where she was strong, and funny, and loving. The dash that made me want to fill my life with more astonishing brilliance so at the end I can relish in the light that was my dash.

Sometimes it takes losing something for us to wake up to brilliance, sometimes it takes finding something so bright it dazzles us to wake up to brilliance, and sometimes it just takes quieting down and listening to yourself to wake up to brilliance.

So here’s my question: “What would it take for you to have a more brilliant dash?” What would you have to lose (nothing I hope)? What could you have to find? How could you wake up and craft a more brilliant dash? A dash filled with astonishing memories that are so indelibly burned into you that you can’t help but feel grateful for the chance to explore your shimmer. Find some thing, some place, some one that makes you shimmer and you’ll be astonished at your own brilliant dash.

See you on the wire

-- Steven Cardinale