👇 The Unfolding Experience of Now
On being and experiencing the great unfolding.
A couple decades ago, I found myself paging through a book my roommate left on the counter simply titled Be Here Now. I knew nothing of its author or contents, and to this day I haven't actually read it. But the title alone, along with its eye-catching cover, lodged in my memory.
In moments of distraction, I'd catch myself and repeat the mantra, "be here now."
When I would find myself swirling among chaotic circumstances, I'd try to center and think, "be here now."
When I found myself grasping for my phone at the slightest hint of boredom, I'd hope to stop myself and remind myself of the importance of being here, right now.
It isn't easy, and I fail more often than I succeed. But I find it to be a noble pursuit.
Over and over and over again, I let myself get distracted. Sometimes it's a coping mechanism, and sometimes it's merely a lack of discipline, but it's always notable. It's never satisfying. Distraction is fast food, which may quench the immediate thirst and taste divine in the moment, but never fully satiates.
And then, a few days ago, I heard the following narrated through my morning Headspace meditation:
Nothing can replace the unfolding experience of now.
I've come back to this dozens of times over since then. It's not just a command that sets you up for self-disappointment, charging you to be here now. Rather, it's a statement that eloquently describes the importance of that very practice.
There will never be another now. Being present and experiencing all that unfolds in front of you is unique and powerful. And though we may sometimes wish we could swap a present experience for a different one, perhaps one of the past, there are infinite times when we'd be better off tuning out distractions and acknowledging the humbling beauty that nothing—exactly nothing—can replace this precise moment.
Unfolding, now,
-Rye