Awareness

Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness.
James Thurber

How many times have you looked back in anger at something that just shouldn't have happened. At the partner who treated you poorly, or maybe even deserted you. At the parents who didn't do with you the things you think they should have, or maybe even did things they shouldn't have. At the guy who ran into your car last year. There are so many things that happen to us every day that make us angry. But the problem is that we hang onto that anger. We never forget what it felt like to be insulted. And all that does is make us more angry.

How many times have you looked forward in fear, worrying about what might happen in the future. What if they have World War 3? What if an asteroid hits earth? What if I fail my exam? What if my spouse leaves me? But the truth is that nobody has any crystal ball that can see into the future. That means that nobody can control the future which is what makes it scary. Along with the tendency to assume that things will continue to go on the way they always have. And sure if we continue to have wars all the time then World War 3 is a distinct possibility. But what if things don't continue on that path and we can stop all the wars we are having now?

We can't control the past, or the future so there is no point dwelling on them. But we can control the present. The first step is to look around us in awareness of what is happening right now. Only then can we determine what we want to do about it. The only thing that is in our power is the ability to deal with what is going on right now. The past has already happened, the future is an unknown.

Look around in awareness. What can we do right now to influence the future to go the way we want it to? Rather than pacing about worrying about passing our exam, we can be aware that what is happening right now is that we need to spend more time studying, or maybe study more effectively. And when we take care of what we need to do in the present to deal with present conditions, we have made it much more likely that the future will happen the way we want.