This Is All For You

Are you in the past, anxious because of the thing that happened yesterday, or last week, or last year, or when you were a teenager? Or are you in the future, worrying about tomorrow’s meeting, or your performance review, or if you’ll have enough petrol to get home, or whether you’ll have saved enough for retirement?

Are you thinking about what you’ll watch on television tonight? Are you worried about how much you spent yesterday? Are you eagerly awaiting your holiday? Or are you dreaming you were still on the beach? Does the vacuum cleaner need emptying?

Perhaps you’re staring at a screen. Perhaps you’re looking at your phone. Or finishing that report. Or trying to sort something out in that spreadsheet. Or figuring out your smart watch. Or busy absorbing the constant stream of social media or news or gossip or random and unceasing internet nonsense. Where are you now?

Look up.

There’s a world out there and you’re already in it. But not really because you’re somewhere else. Are you actually focused on yesterday, or tomorrow, or your phone? Because this world, where the birds sing and fly, where you can smell the food from the restaurant downstairs, where the trees gently sway, where the distant sound of the lawnmower and the crack of leather on willow provide a backdrop for lazy summer dreams, this is happening right now. But you are not. You’re lost somewhere in the past, or in the future. Where are you right now?

This world needs you. It needs you to feel its breeze against your face. It needs you to appreciate the heat of its summer and the cold of its winter. It needs you to listen to the sound of the snow as it crunches underfoot. It needs you to hear it when its waves lap against the shore, when the sound of its galloping horses shake the earth, when its bees make the slow-motion leap from one flower to the next. It needs you to see its colours and feel its textures.

That’s what they’re for.

It needs you to be here. Where you are right now. To really be here. To feel the textures, to smell the smells, to listen to the sounds around you. It needs you to capture this moment for all time otherwise it will be lost and all for nothing. It needs you to stop and breathe and be here now.

That’s all it asks. Just be hear now. Tell your partner that you love them, and feel the words as they leave your mouth. Listen to your child as they tell you about their day, and really digest their each and every word. Chew your food. Feel the air around you. Breathe, and feel, and be.

The entire universe is in this moment. Everything that’s been is gone. Everything that is yet to be is yet to be. All that exists is this moment, and you are in the middle of it. So stop. Look. Listen.

Shake hands with the infinite. Because all time is here. Condensed in this moment. Shake hands and feel its palm pressed against yours. Bathe in its light, drink from its spring. You are at the centre of the universe. Nothing is real but what you perceive, so perceive, and perceive and relish, and be, and enjoy.

Because all of this is for you. All of this can only be for you, right now in this moment. So be here now. Be. Here. Now.

Nothing can happen anywhere but here. Nothing can be anytime but now. This is all there is. The entirety of existence in this moment, in this second, in this blink of an eye. In this blink of your eye. So soak it up, drink it in, and feel the universe within you.

As the sun shines through the curtains in the morning, understand that you are part of the same continuum of being. As the grass sways in the field, understand that you are part of the same reality. As the wind sighs past the leaves in the trees, understand that you are at the centre of everything. You are everything. It’s all up to you.

Everything is for you. Everything is yours.