{"id":248,"date":"2018-04-29T17:12:52","date_gmt":"2018-04-29T21:12:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/?p=248"},"modified":"2021-01-04T17:34:08","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T22:34:08","slug":"the-gift-of-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/the-gift-of-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gift of Right Now!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/em>Dreams are important! Any cat will tell you that anticipation is one of the Best Feelings Ever. Knowing you\u2019re on the verge of something wonderful, something you\u2019ve longed for \u2013 even if it\u2019s Something Not Identified, but you can tell by the way life feels that it\u2019s going to be rewarding and worth the wait \u2013 is so exciting that just thinking about it makes me purr!<\/span><\/p>\n

There is something even more important than dreaming and anticipating the future, and that is learning to live in the present. While living in the present is an automatic feline behavior, it can be one of the most difficult life lessons for humans to put into practice. There are many reasons why this is so, but I have observed three that are the most common.<\/span><\/p>\n

Humans worry about what may or may not happen.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0Don\u2019t think cats never worry. We do! When a family member is ill or unhappy, we express our love and concern. When we\u2019re stuffed into a carrier and placed in a vehicle (which usually drives us to the vet\u2019s office), we are worried and<\/em> scared! But our concern is centered on what is happening right now \u2013 not on possible scenarios projected onto tomorrow, or the next day, or into the weeks ahead. We can\u2019t know what the future holds, and worry provides neither insight nor the ability to change what is to come. It simply destroys the gift of the moment. <\/span><\/p>\n

A quote on Mom\u2019s bulletin board reads, \u201cIf a problem isn\u2019t worth praying about, it\u2019s not worth worrying about.\u201d This is great advice! The power of suggestion flees before the power of prayer. When we live in the present, we can enjoy the pleasures and deal with the pain that is taking place right here, right now. We can place our confidence in the God who does hold the future in His hands.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Wanting without doing isn\u2019t enough. Praying without working isn\u2019t enough. Dreaming without planning isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

<\/i>Click To Tweet<\/span><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

Humans focus on the future.<\/em><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 Dreams are the ultimate escape. It is necessary to hope and dream and desire a better future. However, planning for the future depends upon living in the present. Writers turn dreams into novels. Students turn dreams into careers. Wanting without doing isn\u2019t enough. Praying without working isn\u2019t enough. Dreaming without planning isn\u2019t enough. A desire can only become reality if we pull it out of the ethereal realm of dreamland and map it out as a goal. The planned work we do each day in the present will lead to the scheduled accomplishment of our dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Humans focus on the past.<\/em><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 This is the cousin of dreaming without doing. Reliving what has already taken place, and therefore what cannot be undone or redone, wastes the gift of the present. We can enjoy pleasant memories and learn from the all the rest, but regret gets us nowhere. We ask forgiveness of those we\u2019ve wronged. We offer forgiveness to those who have wronged us. God forgives us, and we forgive ourselves. The past is behind us for a reason. When we walk forward while looking back, we miss precious moments that we never even see.<\/span><\/p>\n

So much can happen when you look away. We are so easily distracted that we can take for granted what is most important:\u00a0 deliberately and consciously living<\/em> each moment, each day, for all it\u2019s worth. Everything we have is right here, right now, with our loved ones and our friends.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss a single moment in your extra-ordinary world! Enjoy the Gift of Right Now!<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dreams are important! Any cat will tell you that anticipation is one of the Best Feelings Ever. Knowing you\u2019re on the verge of something wonderful, something you\u2019ve longed for \u2013 even if it\u2019s Something Not Identified, but you can tell by the way life feels that it\u2019s going to be rewarding and worth the wait…<\/p>\n

Continue<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[13,16,18,17,7],"class_list":["post-248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith-hope-love","tag-cat","tag-inspiration","tag-live-in-the-present","tag-melodys-extra-ordinary-world","tag-meow"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9JMNa-40","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":637,"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions\/637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actownsend.com\/MEOW\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}