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Center for Enlightened Leadership
 
THE LENS E-NEWSLETTER/JOURNAL

How Now
By PAUL D. HOUSTON

  Dr. Paul. D. Houston
  Dr. Paul D. Houston
Founding Partner

Growing up, you might have heard the phrase “How now, brown cow.” Even as a kid, I figured out the brown cow was there just to help us say “ow” sounds. But the notion of figuring out “how now” has stayed with me. I mean, figuring out how we can be in the Now is a worthy lifelong pursuit. In fact, keeping a focus on the Now is one of the hardest things most of us have to learn in this life. It’s rather strange that it’s so hard to be here and now when we really can’t be anyplace else or at any time other than here and now.

I think part of the problem is that our culture is so focused on what has happened in the past and what might happen in the future that we forget that one was already and the other may or may not be. The only thing that is certain is now. Yet the Now is fleeting. The Now I was talking about two sentences ago is already past, and the one I am writing right now will be gone in a blink. See, there it goes…

In one of Wayne Dyer’s wonderful little books, The Gift of Isis, he recounts a conversation between an earthling and Isis, a being from another planet. Isis comments on how much humans seem to be focused on what has already happened. She goes on to point out that they seem so full of regret. On her planet, she says, they just push “rewind” and go back to the moment that bothers them and redo what happened. The earthling points out that on Earth we don’t have a rewind button; we can’t go back and redo what happened. If that is the case, Isis suggests, maybe our spending so much time agonizing over what has happened is a waste of time and effort. In fact, focusing on the past robs you of the potential and the power of Now.

Likewise, we humans spend a lot of our time thinking and worrying about the future. I had a good friend who prided himself on his future focus. He bragged to me one day that all he did in the present was breathe. Not long after that he died of an asthma attack—so I guess he even forgot to breathe in the present. All those plans he had made were for naught; he didn’t live to see them happen. (One of my favorite jokes asks if you know how to make God laugh. The answer: “Tell Him you have a plan.”) The reality is that while it is good to do some contingency thinking, and it is good to spend some time hoping to shape the future, we must realize and accept that that’s about all we are doing. The river of time will bend and flow in ways we cannot foresee or imagine, and our best-laid plans are always going to be some version of what might have been.

Spending time with the past and wallowing in our regrets, and hoping or worrying about things in the future, may be interesting pursuits, but they are largely a waste of time—time we could be using to make the moment in which we’re living richer and more meaningful. The very best present we can give ourselves is presence. This comes from increasing our sense of awareness and being. It may also be about finding the courage to explore what is operating in our lives. It is most certainly about trying to reflect on what is going on at any moment.

It’s interesting how much time and effort we invest in trying to gain and spend. We try to acquire and have. Yet the only treasure we can ever really have is to learn to be. The imperative to take the time to smell the flowers is a powerful one. A number of years ago I was diagnosed with glaucoma. When I found out that I could possibly lose my sight, I started to see—really see—for the first time. I don’t necessarily always smell the flowers, but I sure as heck see them and appreciate them. I will often stop, and make those around me stop, to take in a particularly beautiful vista. I live in the desert, which is abundant with sights and sounds, and every day I try to make sure I take some of it in.

Yes, we have to do, but more important, we have to be. And being is stopping in the midst of doing something we think is important or imperative, and realizing that it really isn’t as important as that second of appreciation we can steal from that moment. Frank Sinatra must have understood what I’m talking about. He used to sing, “Do, be, do, be, do.” That is the dance of doing and being! Being by itself doesn’t get the bills paid, but doing by itself doesn’t let you appreciate why you have the bills and what is really of value. And if all this escapes you, just remember that “now” spelled backward is “won.”

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