A wise sage once told me, “Failure to be present is life’s greatest sin.” If the word sin carries too much baggage for you, replace it with problem, danger, or waste.
Whatever we call it, it’s clear that a lack of presence costs us pieces of now. I know firsthand. I’ve spent years perfecting the art of being absent, mortgaging today’s joy to pay for yesterday’s regrets and tomorrow’s anxieties.
I can’t taste my food
while I’m scrolling the feed.
I can’t feel the sun on my skin
while I’m hiding in yesterday’s shadow.
I can’t hear my favorite song
while I’m listening to tomorrow’s noise.
It’s hard to enjoy a life you’re absent from.
Every time we relive the past or fixate on the future, we trade this moment for a hallucination, and we abandon the only place life can ever happen: right here, right now.
Presence isn’t something we acquire.
It’s what remains when we let go.
