A man who lived a long time ago believed that he could read the future in the stars. He called himself an Astrologer and spent his time at night gazing at the sky. He was always busy worrying about the future and villagers often came to him, hoping to know what their future held.
One evening he was walking along the open road outside the village. His eyes were fixed on the stars. He thought he saw there that the end of the world was near. He was lost in his thoughts about the future. As he was looking at the stars, he kept walking without looking down. Suddenly, he fell into a ditch full of mud and water.
He was sinking in the muddy water, and madly trying to claw at the slippery sides of the hole in his effort to climb out. He was unable to crawl out and fearing for his life, he started screaming for help. His cries for help soon brought the villagers running.
As they pulled him out of the mud, one of them said, "You pretend to read the future in the stars, and yet you fail to see what is at your feet! This may teach you to pay more attention to what is right in front of you, and let the future take care of itself."
"What use is it," said another, "to read the stars, when you can't see what's right here on the earth?"
Reflection: Inattentiveness and struggles with focus are something we all struggle with at times. How often do you feel your mind wanders? For many of us it can be quite frequent. We miss what is right in front of us in various ways. How many moments or situations do you find yourself fully present in? Do you find your mind wandering while someone is trying to tell you something and then you can't recall what they said? Do you find that you get stuck reflecting on the past, going over regrets, and missing what is happening in the present moment? How about the other direction, thinking of some future scenario where everything goes wrong? No matter how you slice it, you only have right now. Thoughts about the past and future have the same thing in common, they are happening right now in the present moment! If we spend too much time dwelling on imagined scenarios, we miss a lot of important things. As the character Socrates says in the book "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior"; "There are no ordinary moments."
If you can, take a moment right now and set a five-minute timer and engage in this simple mindfulness practice. Sit comfortably and put everything down. Focus on your breathing in, saying silently "right here", and breathing out, saying silently "right now". In "right here", out "right now". After you did this, what did you notice about how you feel? How can you fit this into your day-to-day life? Here's an example of how you could use it: I'm walking out to get into my car and I pause. Taking a deep breath in, I say "Right here", and breathing out "Right now". As I'm doing this I become mindful of the warm air on my face, the ground at my feet, and just notice anything else going on around me at the moment.
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