The beauty of ‘being’

“I can’t wait until….”

Here is a simple quote that personally passes through my lips numerous times a day. It has become apparent to me in recent times that looking for the ‘what next’ in my future has almost overcome me to an extent where the ‘now’ is overlooked. There is such beauty in the ‘now’. A glistening feeling of contentment that comes with satisfaction, magnificence, and a feeling of being complete and loyal to your current state. Over the last number of months, with the current pandemic, it is only natural that we would look forward, hoping for the more fulfilling and enlightening present that we once knew. Wouldn’t it be just lovely to go on a plane to a land of new adventures or to see that loved one we could once see with a quick decision? I personally hope to never take these opportunities for granted again. I hope I can delve into a state of ‘being’ when these occurrences are permitted to me going forward.

I then think of children. Sometimes I envy them and their amazing ability of ‘being’. Without a doubt, they too look forward to many things, but those future thoughts and hopes don’t seem to get in the way of their ‘now’. I have spent hours watching children in play. It is magic. No other word can describe their complete belief in their own play. They are superheroes, they are nurses, doctors, mummies and daddies playing out their expectations of what those roles entail. They are met with all the disputes, dilemmas, explorations, and celebrations of what these roles involve. Children build towers with lego and bricks and talk about the bird that will have to fly around them or the lights they must add to prevent aircraft crashing into them. At that moment, they aren’t simply stacking blocks one on top of the other. At that moment, they are working on top of a skyscraper, exploring the mind of an engineer as they create their concrete masterpieces. While playing in the mud kitchen you hear stories of families trying to negotiate a plan for collecting their children from school or the dilemma of who will make the children’s lunches the following morning as they whisk their mud with water in a bowl. In this moment, these children are parents, caring deeply for the children they magically created in their minds.

This makes me wonder, why do we lose this magic? Is this something that we, as adults, need to find a way to get back to? I want to be able to experience the ‘now’ as children do. I want to experience my next holiday and truly ‘be’ there, not wondering about what is going on at home or what could happen the following week. I want this, for me, to truly feel all the emotions as they happen but also because I don’t want to be part of the reason that the children around me lose this magic. I don’t want to be the one who models the behaviour of the ‘now’ not being good enough to be truly present for it. Going forward, I will practice bringing my mind and thoughts back into the present whenever they wander. I will be more conscious of my passing comments that are in some ways meaningless but in other ways affecting me and others. I will continue to learn from children and do my best to understand, practice and celebrate their magic. I will do my best to feel what I feel when I feel it and be grateful.  

“Living moment by moment and seeing everything afresh without judgement and worry lets us experience life rather than simply get through it”, Collard, 2014.