Happy Now Year

The last two notes celebrated the future and the past. This one is about the easily overlooked bit in between where things happen.

What's done is done. What's new is now,
and now is all there is,
and all the joy God will allow
lives in this moment's kiss.

That's a fragment of a verse I wrote so long ago I don't remember the rest. What brought it to mind is two TV shows we watched one evening recently.

The first, a romance, had a wise secretary offering some advice to her young colleague who was obsessing over a deal gone wrong: "Take time to enjoy Christmas. Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present."

The next story was a mystery in which an aging private investigator quotes Horace: "Seize the day, and put the least possible trust in tomorrow". 

We have this interesting paradox: two random stories advising us to live in the moment yet taking me back to the past when I noticed being in the moment and used that moment to write a reminder for a future when I might forget. 

And here I am in that future-become-present
writing about that moment past
when I discovered
that joy can be experienced
only in a fleeting now...
and only if we aren't too engrossed
in the past or future to notice. 

Excuse me. I need to collect a kiss.

Happy Now Year.