CATCH THE PRESENT MOMENT

 

          CATCH THE PRESENT MOMENT 

‘Time’ is defined as what is measured in minutes, hours, days, etc. Another definition describes it as ‘the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present and future regarded as a whole “travel through space and time.”

Time is also mentioned as ‘today’ and ‘tomorrow’.  To measure it in this way is not correct because time is eternal. It was, it is and it will be. It is endless. However, the dependable part of time is the present moment. The past cannot be called back and the future is uncertain.

A disturbing aspect of time is its memory of the past. It consumes a lot of our time at the cost of our present moment  when we are alive and are supposed to do what is relevant . Past is history, future is a dream. Present is a hard reality but it also becomes past in the split of a second.

  Wisdom requires not to brood over the past and also not to dream about the future. The English poet and philanthropist Adelaide Anne Procter (1825-1864)  has written a poem which she has called “Now” and begins with the lines:

Rise ! for the day is passing,

And you lie dreaming on’

            The others have buckled their armor,

            And forth to the fight are gone.

 

She goes on to say:

 

            A place in the ranks awaits you,

            Each man has some part to play;

            The Past and Future are nothing,

            In the face of the stern today.

 

The second stanza begins with the line:

           

            Rise from your dreams of the future,

            And ends with the lines:

 

Your Future has deeds of glory,

            Of honor (God grant it may !)

            But your arm will never be stronger,

            Or the need so great as Today.

 

The third of this four-stanza poem deals with the Past time and is most significant because it lays stress on the significance of the present moment for which she has used the word “Now” as the title of her poem.

 

            Rise ! if the Past detains you,

            Her sunshine and storms forget;

            No chains so unworthy to hold you

            As those of a vain regret:

            Sad or bright, she is lifeless ever;

            Cast her phantom arms away,

            Nor look back, save to learn the lesson

Of a nobler strife Today.

           

Finally, here is a famous quote: “Yesterday’s the past, tomorrow’s the future, but today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.”

 

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G.R.Kanwal

17^th January 2025