{"id":2785,"date":"2011-03-19T16:53:03","date_gmt":"2011-03-19T23:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/?p=2785"},"modified":"2021-03-17T19:27:47","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T02:27:47","slug":"not-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/2011\/03\/19\/not-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

I get so tired of New Age Gurus and other “Experts” telling me I have to focus on the present. My memories are a great source of joy; they also contain the lessons I’ve learned that make me who I am today. The future is my goal, it’s why I endure today.<\/p>\n

\"seattle<\/a>Because, let’s face it: sometimes NOW sucks. Sometimes it’s downright unbearable.<\/p>\n

If I focused only on the present, I wouldn’t endure the hives that come with exercise. If now was all that mattered, I’d eat chocolate all day. I wouldn’t be taking classes required for graduation in subjects that don’t interest me. I wouldn’t have the goal of graduating. I’d never take the potential hangover into consideration when opening, or finishing, a bottle of wine. I’d spend my rent money on airfare to Hawaii, or France, or Greece.<\/p>\n

If I lived only for the moment, I wouldn’t have gone through chemotherapy.<\/p>\n

If I lived my life in the now, I likely wouldn’t have a family. My marriage started with the idea of the two of us spending the rest of our lives together. You have to look ahead to make those kinds of dreams. I would also be repeating the same mistakes over and over, because learning from those mistakes requires looking back.<\/p>\n

I realize that there may be a time at the end of life when now is all I have. I’ll take that when I get there. Until then, I will continue to enjoy my memories, and reach for my goals.<\/p>\n

I’m not opposed to embracing the moment. I’ve written about how my daughter gave me the gift of now<\/a>. It’s important to live in the present, but it has it’s time and place. We need a balance. Each moment of our lives must be informed by our past, and driven by our dreams and goals for the future. Otherwise we’re just stagnant hedonists, and that’s just pathetic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

let’s face it: sometimes NOW sucks. Sometimes it’s downright unbearable. If I lived only for the moment, I wouldn’t have gone through chemotherapy. If now was all that mattered, I’d eat chocolate all day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[695,1043,1042],"tags":[480,479,671,478,680],"class_list":["post-2785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cancer-2","category-health-and-wellness","category-living-with-cancer","tag-dreams","tag-goals","tag-life-lessons-2","tag-now","tag-sanity-2","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/353.jpg?resize=150%2C150",150,150,true],"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/353.jpg?fit=2304%2C3072",2304,3072,false]},"categories_names":{"695":{"name":"Cancer","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/category\/cancer-2\/"},"1043":{"name":"Health & Wellness","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/category\/life-skills\/health-and-wellness\/"},"1042":{"name":"Living with Cancer","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/category\/parenting-with-cancer\/living-with-cancer\/"}},"tags_names":{"480":{"name":"dreams","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/tag\/dreams\/"},"479":{"name":"goals","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/tag\/goals\/"},"671":{"name":"life lessons","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/tag\/life-lessons-2\/"},"478":{"name":"now","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/tag\/now\/"},"680":{"name":"sanity","link":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/tag\/sanity-2\/"}},"comments_number":0,"wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/353.jpg?resize=150%2C150",150,150,true],"cvmm-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/353.jpg?resize=300%2C300",300,300,true],"cvmm-medium-plus":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/353.jpg?resize=305%2C207",305,207,true],"cvmm-portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/353.jpg?resize=400%2C600",400,600,true],"cvmm-medium-square":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/353.jpg?resize=600%2C600",600,600,true],"cvmm-large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/353.jpg?resize=1024%2C1024",1024,1024,true],"cvmm-small":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/353.jpg?resize=130%2C95",130,95,true],"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/353.jpg?fit=2304%2C3072",2304,3072,false]},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1fDeG-IV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4070,"url":"http:\/\/coffeejitters.net\/blog\/2013\/01\/15\/just-breathe\/","url_meta":{"origin":2785,"position":0},"title":"Just Breathe","author":"Judy Schwartz Haley","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes all we have left is our breath. 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