Moving Forward

As the pandemic has eased considerably, here are wise words to keep in mind going forward.

“Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”
— Arundhati Roy

Serenity from Frustration

So yesterday was a really crappy day work-wise. Everything was a fire drill. One job in particular was totally fucked up. I was working on a file from my desktop (standard working procedure) and was told at the eleventh hour that the file I should be working from is online where everyone was working on it in real time. So most of my day's work was for naught. Had I been told that from the beginning a lot of stress and frustration could have been avoided. It was a classic case of miscommunication and no communication at all boogering everything up. I was frustrated, my boss was frustrated, and the mood was basically gloomy because of all this. 

I tell this story for background to something else. Lying in bed this morning I said to myself, "Yesterday is a memory now. Nothing about it is tangible. It can't reach out from the calendar and grab me and pull me back." Then I wondered, "Back from what? Back into what?" It was then I understood my aloud thinking. I had moved beyond letting something in past affect my here and now. It's a new day and what is past is past. It can't influence my mood, if I don't allow it to. I learned a great deal from yesterday about how to more effectively handle similar situations in the future. And that's the only thing from that mess of a day and project I need to carry with me.

It was a great feeling and one of those you feel the serenity and confidence of in your bones. It helps me stay present and in the moment. Right where I should be. Not looking over my shoulder at the past, and not anxious about a future that hasn't happened yet. 

The Joy of Hyperpresence

This morning I'm flooded with an overwhelming sense of calm and place. It's a feeling of "I am RIGHT HERE. I'm in THIS MOMENT." There's nothing ahead to be anxious about, and the past isn't something regrettable. It's just lessons to be assimilated. It's a kind of hyper reality and sense of deep satisfaction. I don't have the biggest place, the fanciest car, the most expensive stuff, and I'm not famous or rich. But I'm right here, right now, and I'm fantastically content feeling me feet firmly and serenely planted in the moment. It's a term I call "hyperpresence."

Third Act Wisdom

“When I talk about figuring out my Third Act I'm not talking about making plans. I'm talking about being disciplined enough to learn what my past has to teach me, brave enough to take those lessons into my heart, to own them, and commit myself to doing what is necessary to make them a part of my future.”
— Jane Fonda, “My Life So Far”