Some people get their pleasure from things that happened in the
past. But I find my pleasure comes from the here and now; and
however wonderful my previous experiences were, they are
not enough to satisfy my urge for joy today. As I reflect on my
previous experiences that were fun, they do provide me with
many smiles. But, I have found that I need current experiences to keep me
the happy person I work at being every minute of every day. I refuse to
allow myself to have negative thoughts or to dwell on problems, whether
real or imagined. I do this because I have found that most of the things
I have worried about never happened.
The human mind seems to have a great capacity to conjure up fearsome
scenarios that have little basis in reality. I can’t figure out why so many
people tend to concentrate on the negative instead of living in accord with
Johnny Mercer’s song, “Accentuate the Positive.” As Johnny advises in
his lyrics, I “eliminate the negative” and “Don’t mess with Mister
In-Between.” I find it is easy to focus on what is happening to me in the
present. I try not to project what might happen in the future, or to dwell on
something in my past that might trouble me if I spent time thinking about
it. Likewise, the future is a nice concept, but I have found many things that
I anticipated have ended up not coming to fruition.
Also, many of us have discovered that things we looked forward to
seldom lived up to the enjoyment we expected. It is similar to the way we
often find that getting something we want does not give us the overall longterm
feeling of elation that we believed it would when we were seeking it.
The concept of stopping to smell the flowers only works if you are looking
for blossoms in the first place. It is easy to understand how many people
don’t stop to enjoy a sunset, not because it isn’t there in front of them, but
rather because they are concentrating too much on other things, either past
or future, rather than on the present.
Sometimes, we become so wrapped up in producing memories of our lives
that we miss the enjoyment of actual current events. It often reminds me
of the tourists I have seen who view their vacations through video camera
eyepieces, yet don’t have the patience to watch what they shot once they get
home. It also reminds me of people who share their memorable moments by
tediously scrolling through their phones to show me their pictures. Usually,
the photos are too small to see the details; and invariably, the moment I touch
their phones, the pictures disappear and they have to start the process all over
again. Perhaps I’m selfish, as I enjoy the moment for myself at the time. If you
would like to replicate my joy, you are going to have to do it for yourself. If you
do, I promise it will be much more meaningful to you than if I show you what
I did, who I saw or where I was. Live your life, not someone else’s. And
don’t ask them to live yours, as it may not be as wonderful to others, as it
is to you.
I’m not myself today and everybody has noticed the improvement 71