In a loving and quiet moment, one of my closest friends said to me, “Life is a continuum.  There is no beginning, middle or end.  It’s just a series of events that flow into one another.”

This is one of life’s truisms.  When we live in the now, we experience the now.  When we live in the past or future we not only miss the now, but we miss the future.  What’s left?  Just the past – the stuff we’ve already experienced.   And given our finite time here — why get stuck in the past?

I’ve learned that while I need to make use of every minute of my finite time, I really don’t need to make use of every minute of my finite time (know what I mean?).  I’ve got to learn to slow down, to let someone take care of me, and to allow life to happen without me worrying about how things will turn out.

Why?

Because life is not about what’s “happening” to me. It’s not a bunch of neatly packaged chapters in a book — each one separate and distinct.  Rather, life is about the flow of all my experiences. It’s about each experience feeding off another experience – so why not slowdown and pay attention?

I used to say death is the opposite of life.  But it’s not – death is the opposite of birth.  Life is what happens between birth and death.  Maybe life is such a long continuum that birth and death are just two milestones on the line … (gosh, just writing this makes me realize how little I actually know and understand).

I once read an Indian proverb that said: Life is not a continuum of pleasant choices, but of inevitable problems that call for strength, determination and hard work.  

While I do think this is true, I don’t think it goes far enough. Yes, life is full of inevitable problems.  But life is also full of beautiful experiences that don’t need strength, determination and hard work.  Sometimes, life just needs us to pay attention and experience.  Just as we do when the wind blows quietly in our face and through the trees.  We simply feel it.  That’s what we should do with the continuum of life. Don’t “expect,” don’t categorize as good or bad – just feel and appreciate it.

Thanks for the thought, my friend.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!