DO YOU TRY AND PREDICT THE FUTURE TOO?
As this beautiful family adventure approaches its final stages, I have found myself trying to do the impossible – predict the future.
I do this by asking myself worry filled questions. Questions, that it is impossible to know the answers to.
We are currently in Upstate New York and the countryside is changing by the day as the leaves are turning with the autumn months. The first frost has hit and some mornings are a lively 4 degrees Celsius.
As I was taking my morning walk down the tree-lined dirt road, gazing out across to the distant mountains, the futuristic worried questions entered my mind.
What will this final month be like?
How will life back in Australia be different?
What will I do for work when I arrive home?
How long until we can do an adventure like this again?
My peaceful walk had been ambushed by my own fears - worries of the future.
I walked with the questions bouncing around my head, not knowing which one to follow. As I concentrated on them harder, they simply amplified in my mind, but the answers were still not there.
I arrived at the pond at the end of the dirt road, without any recollection of the walk I had just done.
By focusing on the future, something I don’t have any control over, all I was really doing was taking away from the passing resource of the present time.
My future thoughts had deprived me of experiencing the beauty of my present surroundings.
As I turned to walk back to the house, I sat with the questions a little more. I pulled the blinds down on the beautiful landscape and gave the questions my full attention.
To each I answered, “Right now, I do not know.”
The intensity of the questions evaporated. I looked up and I could feel the fresh morning air again, see the rolling mountains, and admire the fire coloured leaves.
I walked back fully present, feeling each step.
I would be lying if I said the questions disappeared forever. I think our worries of the future will always be there. But the beauty of today is only here for the shortest of moments: Live Immediately.