Do you spend more time reminiscing the past or worrying about the future? What keeps you from focusing on the now? - Daily Reflections January 15,2015

WHILE IT IS STILL “TODAY”

 

I grew up while the Beatles’ song, “Yesterday,” was taking the whole world by storm. It was an instant hit for many people, and especially for me, with a rather sentimental bent. The song, of course, pines for yesterday, “when all [our] troubles seemed so far away.” It somewhat rues the “now,” which is “today,” for “it looks as though they’re here to stay.”

       The world always seems to idealize what is past, what is not here, what is not within reach anymore, or what one cannot independently verify any longer. The other man’s grass, they say, is always greener. For many, the people they loved to hate when alive are the very same people they loved to extol once dead. Psychologists call it idealization. Thus, questions like, “Why don’t they make music like that of the Beatles anymore?” or “Why do young people behave in this or that way, so unlike during our heyday?” become commonplace.

       Idealization could be some kind of a defense mechanism, a way to cope with an unacceptable present or to deny the unpleasant events or reality of one’s past. When reality now is hard to swallow, people end up wallowing in the past and engaging in something seemingly very rewarding — simply reminiscing!

       While I am one given in to (does the fact that I have more than 6,000 songs in my iPod that are “oldies but goodies” give you a clue?), I am also aware that the past is something I cannot change, and the future is something that is not yet here, and therefore, I cannot control. Today is the only reality I can do something about.

       The “now” is important for the saints, many of whom could very well have this as motto: “nunc coepi” (Now I begin). This is the power of “today” that the First Reading reminds us about: “Encourage yourselves daily while it is still ‘today.’” Let us do what we can, all the good we can, while it is still “today.” For we might not pass this way again. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Do you spend more time reminiscing the past or worrying about the future? What keeps you from focusing on the now?

 

Lord, help me to accept the things of the past for what they are and have faith that everything will be well in the future — so that I can focus on living in the present.