The Eternal Now

Some I know live their lives in the past and everything is an attempt to return to some golden age of innocence and perfection when all was right with the world.

Others I know seem to live for the future in some attempt to reach a distant moment of perfection when all will be beautiful.

In both cases, now is just a means to reach an ideal time when the day-to-day struggles of life will fade into blissful peace. I'm reminded of a poem by Robert Frost:

Neither Out Far Nor in Deep

The people along the sand

All turn and look one way

They turn their back on the land.

They look at the sea all day.

As long as it takes to pass

A ship keeps raising its hull;

The wetter ground like glass

Reflects a standing gull.

The land may vary more;

But wherever the truth may be --

The water comes ashore,

And the people look at the sea.

They cannot look out far.

They cannot look in deep.

But when was that ever a bar

To any watch they keep?

Time is present in this poem in terms of the land which represents the past and the ship at sea which represents the dreams and hopes of the future. The land, like history is solid and complete; the fluid sea is potential. The present is represented by the beach where past and present meet -- this is the truth, the time to live . . . the eternal now