There are so many lessons to learn on our journey upon earth. Some lessons we learn the easy way and some come the hard way.  One thing is certain, those lessons we fail to learn from others we learn from life.  As it has oft been quoted and well reasoned, while life is the best teacher, life is also a hard schoolmaster.

“Experience, that is the most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.” -C.S. Lewis

Those lessons that we learn from living, stick with us for a long time.

The bumps and bruises of experience etch those lessons deep into our soul’s rendering them ones that we will not soon forget.

Presence

One of the most important lessons that one will learn from life experience is the importance of time, and being present.

Time passes so quickly that many fail to stop and take notice. Most people only realize the outcome of millions of decisions made over accumulated time. In fact,  one would be amazed at the number of changes that occur during the seconds, minutes, hours, and days of a year.  In fact, the number is so astronomical that one would be in perpetual awe if they were to sit, meditate, and think on such.

Life altering things are happening in our lives every second.

To think that there are 31,536,000 seconds in the frame of a year.  This is unfathomable, especially when thinking about time relative to the number of decisions that are being made each year. It is truly eye-opening.

When thinking about decision-making many only think of the more complex decisions that are made on a daily basis. The other more minute decisions which also shape the outcome of our lives are less often considered. Such thoughts do not occupy much space in one’s thought life.

These decisions work together to form the miraculous nature of our present and are worthy of purposeful contemplation.

Life satisfaction begins with mindfulness.

It is often the failure to choose mindfulness that leads to some of life’s most poignant lessons

Every now and then we are awakened, and we are forced to become present.   We experience something so significant in our lives that all else ceases to exist, and we are forced to come face to face with time,  fragility, mortality, and the relative scope of our lives, which is a mere microcosm of life in the big scheme of things.

It is in those times of intense and sudden change, that we are given to the contemplation of the importance of being present (aware), Present (aware) of time down to even a fragment of a second.

For it is within seconds that life is created, that the loved one we cherished and may have lost ceases to breathe, that the war that we may be fighting began, and the love and relationships we may be now experiencing begins, ends, or mends.

In a blink of an eye;

Life is shaped, formed, repaired and destroyed

 

A very few seconds can change our lives in meaningful ways, forever. That is why being present is important.

 

Be mindful, live in, use, and fully experience your present.

The more present we are the less worry, anxiety, and fear we have.

A wise person said that anxiety stems from spending too much time thinking about the future and far too much time dwelling in the past.

 

As often as you can, remind yourself of the significance of time, and let that remind you of where you are and the importance of now.