In this moment, everything is great…
Sitting in a coffee shop. Acoustic music in my ears. Social people all around, laughing and smiling. Kids running around the shop and at the same time parents yelling at them to knock off the riff raff. I look across the street and see even more children and families playing, in what looks like, hot springs that shoot from like ground like a geyser in a national park. In reality it’s merely a pressure valve in the ground shooting water vertical. Nonetheless, the faces of the families and kids playing shows one expression. Happiness. Freedom to enjoy the moment at hand with no concerns. Treating life like a playground…
Remember when we were children and had no cares in the world. Maybe due to our lack of an informed consciousness of the world or maybe due to lack of experience in life or maybe due to our experienced brains formulating “future self” or ideas. Whatever it is, those days, were the days.
I remember playing in the sun. From sun up. To sun down. Even a little later if I was feeling risky and didn’t mind having a scolding session when I got home. But who care because you knew tomorrow was going to be another great day. Out on the bikes. Playing with toy guns fully dressed in army gear in 80 degree weather. All the mattered was being outside. Feeling free. No worries. No cares.
As children we may not have the conscious or learned ability to distinguish a “true future”. Our minds are fixed on the present. And the present only. We enjoy the task at hand. We formulate ideas without consequences at times… We enjoy the friends around us and the little fights about nothing that really matters in the end. We get that emotional high seeing our best friends. We are so fixed on these moments that we may even forget to eat during the day. It happens. But nothing beats a summer day with your friends, living in the moment and that moment only.
Then as we age, we are peeled from this simple happiness. Now surrendered to paying bills, obligations that are for a unknown future, status to impress others, making others feel good (people whom we not know or see next year). Buying the “coolest” new material objects. Which will not be cool in three months, but maybe again in 10 years? Trying to impress our friends and socially acceptable acquaintances. Not knowing if we will ever see them again. But still we try DAMN hard to impress others. To be social acceptable. “Socially acceptable” by norms set by culture and society. Yes, the idea is real, but the there is no tangible, physical, material “socially acceptable norms”. These things are set by society or by the people in society based upon their beliefs and virtues. Co-operatively we formulate these ideas, as a society… Thus what we wear, how we act, and sometimes what we do and don’t due are directly influenced by this intangible, non-physical, culture.…
….this is probably why kids are able to live in the moment. They don’t have the formed neuro connections to conceptualize ideas like this. Which in my opinion, is amazing…
We all eventually have to “Adult”. Or when people ask what I am up to today, I respond with “Adulting”. For me this usually involves working to pay those adult bills, or school to enhance my learning, or even activities that will enhance my “adult future”. I do these activates in preparation for the future. For the future me and for no other reason. Society tells me I should go to school, get a good job, and potentially procreate and get my genes into the next generation. Because this all my brain cares about. It releases neuro transmitting chemicals that makes me feel good AS a reward FOR a good behavior or action. That is why we set goals. Simple. Through evolution our brains have learned what works and what doesn’t. That is 100% of the reason I am writing this right now. My genes have found a way to survive and prorogate themselves from vessel to vessel.
As adults we slowly lose our inner child. We are surrounded by so much stimulation. We fail to just slow down and live in the moment like we did when we were kids. We have learned to be stimulated by social media and short term fixes of dopamine, we forget the fundamentals. “Fun”-damentals. Maybe that’s why the English language made “fun” the prefix of “fundamentals”. The word itself lets you know what to do. Have fun. Maybe we should get back our inner child and take some advice from them.
Live in the moment. Maybe by taking the perspective of, life as playground, we can be happy and live a more fulfilling lifestyle.
…..the children playing was cut short by a rain storm. The sky darkened. The wind now had a crisp feel. Everyone started to rush indoors. And then it hit. Rain smashed onto the ground almost sounding like hail. As I sit in the coffee shop, with garage like doors wide open to my right, I could feel the cold rain on my skin with the change of wind direction. The girls in front of me moved away and closer indoors so they wouldn’t get wet. I still didn’t move. I started to notice my computer getting somewhat wet so I grabbed my bandana, I used it as a hat to run to the coffee shop with, and wiped down the screen. By now it was a slight thunderstorm and everyone across the park was gone. I still didn’t move. I noticed the kids in the coffee shop running around in circles. One kid tested the cold rain pellets against his skin by briefly stepping out, but abruptly came back indoors. As I sat there, arm almost complete wet, table half way drenched, I noticed how good the rain felt. How it felt against my skin. I noticed my emotions and feelings. One thought came to my conscious. I remembered when I was a kid playing in the rain and the feeling of freedom overwhelmed me. It was all over my body. This tingling feeling. It was blissful. A big smile ensued. I was experiencing my inner child again and what it was like to live in the moment. A few seconds passed and a man in a bright, highlighter yellow, shirt came rushing over and closed the door. His voice soft and subtle stated, “Sir, I’m really sorry about that”, as he wiped off the table. I directed my attention to him from the fountains of after across the street, looked up, and replied with a huge smile, “That’s okay, I was enjoying the rain”.
I was in the moment. I was present. I was experiencing it without searching….. happiness.
