Living in the Fleeting Present

I’ve found the past to be the least helpful for my happiness. Looking towards the future can feel encouraging or even invigorating: looking forward to something upcoming can be exciting. But there’s a mania associated with such anticipation that doesn’t allow us to enjoy the most important timeframe for happiness and contentment: now. I hope to refocus my emphasis on enjoying the present, as I’ve slipped recently. But I also know the most profound moments of my life, whether during conversation, physical exertion, or deep introspection, have all occurred when I’ve been living within the fleeting present moment. It offers clarity, and the only fully true embrace of this thing we call life.

This is Life

I think it’s good to question it all often. To think about why we’re here and what life is truly about. Introspection can be difficult and painful. But when we each regularly engage in it, we can better ourselves, and in turn, the world. And what a big beautiful amazing world it is. This is life.

Super Bowl Thoughts

I watch the big game, as it’s called, and I wonder when the world will wake up from advertising. Of course “my team” wasn’t in it today, so it’s easy for me to declare this. But there might not be another singular event that garners so much attention. When we watch together, do we think about how united we actually are?

Writing Cards

I had a funny thought about how cards have evolved. Now we write a note to someone and often hand it to them, for their birthday, or some type of anniversary or celebration. I assume that traces back to when written communication was the only way to send love over long distances. What you wrote was what people received; no voice over the phone, and certainly no in-person, physical affection. What do we write to each other now? How will this sacred tradition continue and change?

Addressing Softness

I feel I’ve grown soft since the pandemic, and I’m addressing it. I wonder if that’s a common occurrence across the US, and the world. We inhabit an environment of pleasure and convenience. Even in my lifetime, I think there’s been a noticeable shift. Our expectations are consistently a little bit higher, our collective tolerance just a little bit lower. In a sense, we need to snap out of it, myself included. Because from the most distant vantage point, even in agony, life is amazing.

The Outside and the Home

I heard a stat recently that most people spend 93% of their day indoors. It made me a little sad, because it insinuates we don’t live with the Earth, that we merely live on it. I try to tell myself to pause and enjoy the elements, even as I stand in the early morning cold waiting for the train as I write this. These thoughts resonate powerfully with me right now, as for the past several weeks we’ve been renovating our home. As I wrote recently, it’s natural for us to want to beautify and maintain our dwelling. It’s our one sacred safe place we build in the world. But at the same time, it’s one physical location on the vast surface of this planet. It can be a place of refuge and rest, but it shouldn’t be a prison. We were made with bodies equipped to explore. There’s a big beautiful amazing world out there. If we go see it, we’ll not only understand it better, but also better understand each other.

Fighting for Earth

I walked underneath a cherry blossom tree today during lunchtime and marveled at the experience. How lucky we are to live on such a beautiful planet. That there are cherry blossoms and all kinds of vegetation all around us. That there are lemurs and rhinos, river dolphins and vampire bats all across the world. History stretching back millennia, representing hundreds of cultures. What’s the inconvenience we face today compared to all that? The Earth itself is worth fighting for. We can solve our crises and move forward toward a better future. We can change the world.

Moments of Love

I sat across the dinner table from my wife this evening in our own home for the first time in months. To stare into her eyes while conversing about anything and everything over pasta and wine was bliss. In extended moments like tonight, it’s obvious how simple and wonderful life can be when we see what’s important and enjoy it. When living on this beautiful planet, enjoying the company of those you love; in those moments, there’s nothing else.

Walking into Spring

How wonderful it is to walk down a street and enjoy the sunshine. Not a typical statement for February, but today that’s how it felt on my two walks today. Perhaps this is a late GroundHog Day post; I feel the winter is dissipating and the spring arriving. What if we approached this year’s seasonal transition as a transformation for all of our global institutions? What if we perceived the transition as a dawn of a new age for humanity, and the world? It can be so, if we want.

Clean Home

There’s something purifying about cleaning. It might just be our biological desire for a clean dwelling. It might be the act of it in itself. I just know even though we’re meant to be outside, we still want to come seek shelter in a clean home. If we all feel that way, can we clean up our greater home together?

Epiphany and Beyond

I experienced two separate epiphanies this weekend. The second: selfishness doesn’t increase happiness or pleasure, it actually makes both less attainable and increases negativity. The first: we exist in this soup that is the universe, and mix with all else, and all others that are also in this soup. So what’s the path forward?

Tribe Building

There is so much to experience in the world. And I’ve realized it’s better to navigate this journey with others. It makes us feel better, less alone, but it also increases the enjoyment. I’m satisfied with the relationships in my tribe, my close family and closest friends. Yet I recognize that a tribe can encompass more: it can be the gym you go to, the game group you play with, or the music fanbase with which you associate. We can build a tribe with people who aren’t our family or friends, through any regular, fulfilling activity. It’s how we form organized groups harboring the same mission and values. In the 21st century, we are tasked with organizing around a singular global vision. We are at the precipice of a united world, one human tribe. Are you in?

Changing on GroundHog Day

I marvel at the passage of time and how different we can become over a matter of days. Poor diet and lack of sleep last week had me feeling like dirt. Less than a week later, back to exercising and eating better, and I’m a new man. They say the key is stringing the good things together, and that seems to have merit. Just look at the movie GroundHog Day.

Entering Other Worlds

We are the only animals we know of that can disappear into other worlds within our minds. I’m always amazed when I return back to reality after pulling out of a good book or an engrossing game or enthralling film. We can enter these other worlds proactively as well, through daydreams and creative writing and illustration. How lucky we are to have the ability to enter these alternate dimensions. Even such a simple thing can become precious, if viewing the world with gratitude.

Group Resolutions

We’re one month into this new year, do we feel changed? Are we off to the right track? While I prefer to make resolutions on my birthday each year, maybe our New Year’s resolutions can be communal. Maybe at the turn of each month, we check on how we’re doing as a society, look ahead to the exciting things upcoming for our community, and prepare for the difficult challenges we might face together. Maybe we can focus a bit more on group improvement. And if all starts with raising global consciousness and uniting humanity. We are one species. Let’s see ourselves as that and move forward together.

Adaptable Perspective

We are so incredibly adaptable. It’s an incredible strength, but it’s also a limitation we cannot escape. We are only capable of understanding what experience we have lived. All the possibilities of perspective we have can only come from our experience. Can we reach beyond that to consider someone else’s? Because that’s the next evolution for our species.

Apply to the Future

There is a social element to “the football games” I guess. We watch it together and get worked up. And then I remind myself that it’s just a football game. There is much more we can accomplish together. Considering the production of a football game, can we apply to our future?

One Big Tribe

Family time. I’ve written about it before, but as time goes on I recognize how consequential it is. We spend our most significant moments with our tribe. Do we realize it? Do we act accordingly?

Supposed to Wonder

You start to evaluate what matters, and what conversations matter. It can certainly be tricky sometimes. Maybe with our larger brains in this timeline we’re supposed to wonder.

Tribal Evaluation

It’s an honest look when you consider the tribal members in your life. If something happens to the key people in your life, then what? What happens? Even if painful, this thought exercise can be powerful, and reinforce who we love. Maybe all this is inherent when you live in small tribal groups in 2000 BC. But now it’s less obvious. Is there value in returning there, in considering what tribe means?