Never Looking Back or Too Far Infront of Me

I spent two years in the hilly city scape of São Paulo, Brazil. While living in the city of Mogi Das Cruzes there was this huge hill we had to walk up every day. I would walk up this hill staring towards the top, and as I took each step it was like the hill just continued to grow, and appeared to never end. The heat would pound down on me, and the weight of my feet would start to grow heavier each step I took. Complaints began to shower my mind. As I would look back down the hill in an attempt to see how much progression we had made I would be caught up in wishing I was back down the hill, in my bed. I even tried venturing up this hill walking backwards switching my focus to what we had left behind. As I took each step my mind would venture into my abyss of memories of better days from yesterdays. One morning as I made the trek up this enormous hill staring up to the top, I switched my focus to instead focus on where I was in that exact moment. I began to notice the houses I walked past and the details of that exact moment. When I did this, my climb to the top began to move swifter, the sun didn’t seem to be beating down so badly. That’s when it struck me, that life is quite similar to that enormous hill. That just as my voyage up that hill was more pleasant as I focused on where I was in the moment. Life to, could also be easier to bare as you become content with the now…

“Never looking back or too far in front of me,
the present is a gift, and I just wanna be” - Common

I try and do exactly this, everyday I try not to worry or focus about what the futer holds for me. At the same time I don’t want to get swept away in the land of “what if.” Where you are constantly plagued by the thoughts of the past, what once was, and what could have been. I believe it is important to make goals, and continuously strive to improve, progress, learn, and grow. I just don’t want to be a slave to the idea that once certain future events occur that my life will all of a sudden be better, happier, and free of the sorrows, stress, and struggles that life so often brings with the breeze of the day. Whether that be a new job, more money, owning a home, a better car, in a relationship, married, have children, moving to a new city or country, and other such future life events. So much of our life is based on events and other aspects of our lives that we have no control over. We waste far too much energy trying to plan and prepare for the unknown. Instead we should do our best to continuously hope for the best and prepare for the worst in all aspects of our lives. In a lot of ways our happiness is dependent on how we chose to react to what the days brings. So live in the now, focus on the present, and move through life living for today, and not in yesterday, wishing we could go back, and in the same moment not waiting to be happy in the future. Just treat today as a gift.

“I’ve spent 26 years waiting for something else to start. So, no, I don’t think it’s too much to take on, because it’s everything there is. I see now it’s all there is.” - Andrew Largeman