Embrace the Moment, We Cannot Know the Future
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist, is known for his teachings on mindfulness and living in the present moment. He emphasized that the past is gone, the future is not yet here, and only the present moment exists for us to be alive.
There's an old song that’s stayed with me for years. Doris Day sang it in that soft, clear voice of hers. “Que Sera, Sera… Whatever will be, will be. The future’s not ours to see.”
The message is simple but deep. We don’t know what the future holds, and we never truly will. Yet, so many of us live as though we can control or predict what’s coming next. We worry, we imagine disasters, we scare ourselves with “what ifs” and “what might happen.”
Just this morning, I saw an editorial headline predicting an economic collapse worse than anything in our history. I didn’t read it. I didn’t want to. I know myself, and I know how headlines like that plant fear in the mind, even when nothing has happened. They feed a way of thinking that always looks for dark clouds, even when the sky is clear.
This is why I’ve come to embrace mindfulness, meditation, and the wisdom of Buddhist teachings. They gently remind us to live in the moment, not yesterday, not tomorrow, but here, right now.
The past is done. The future hasn’t arrived. We only ever have the present. And yet, many of us spend our days fearing what’s next or regretting what came before. We run so fast trying to outpace our own thoughts that we miss the quiet beauty of what’s around us.
Mindfulness isn’t magic. It doesn’t erase problems or promise that everything will turn out the way we want. But it does teach us how to stay with ourselves. To breathe. To notice the warm sunlight on the wall, the sound of birds outside the window, and the way the cup of coffee feels in our hands.
When we live like that, we begin to see the truth behind the old song. The future is not ours to see, and that’s all right. We can prepare, we can hope, but we don’t need to scare ourselves with predictions or imaginary disasters.
Whatever will be, will be.
And in the meantime, this moment, this one right here, is ours to live, to notice, and maybe even to love.
This is absolutely the best way to live. When living in the past, well that’s just memories and should stay there. I rather live in the now, the present. If there’s a problem I have to take care of tomorrow, then that’s when I will approach it, not today. Why worry about tomorrow and ruin what you have today. What was that old saying? I believe it went like this,” Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift, that’s why it’s called the present!” Much appreciation for this read.