Right Now

God does not ask of us the perfection of tomorrow, nor even of tonight, but only of the present moment.
– St. Madeline Sophie Barat

When my nephews were younger, they would ask me to do things. Sometimes my answer would be that we'll do it later and inevitably their answer would be "No, I want to do it right now."

All of us can relate to not wanting to wait for what we want. We have all had times when we felt as if we had to have something right away. But it's a lot harder to learn to apply the same idea to living in the present and doing what matters "right now".

It might even seem like a matter of semantics. But it's clearly not when you try it out. The other day I had to make a choice at a moment during the day about how to handle a situation. I could choose reaching out to someone or putting it off. I was busy, I was tired and I was stressed at the time. I could think of many reasons not to take action at that moment.

I decided to reach out to the person right away anyhow. I discovered that there was a serious situation going on for her - and I was so glad I didn't wait. If I had, I would have missed an opportunity to be there for her.

I've learned that living in the future is really harmful to my future. I can always make choices about what to do and take action - right now. And if I ever doubt that such distinctions are not important, all I have to do is visualize my young nephews' faces!