A New Year, Yet Always Now

It is amazing how much can happen in one year. When you look back, it always seems to have gone by so quickly. Even when it was filled with an unbelievable amount of events, and even when so much has changed that you became a different person from the last time you cheered a new year. When so much can happen in that span of time, it can become easy to dwell on the past or fear the amount of change that lurks in the future. We need to remember the lessons of the past, but we need not dwell on our mistakes nor the great times we have had. We must not lose sight of the only thing that can make the future a bright one…the only thing that is real…the now.

I have gone through so much this year, and I don’t think I could have handled the upheavals I went through at an earlier age as easily as I did in 2017. It has taken me years to obtain the ability to realize that it is the journey we must enjoy, not the destination. We will continuously go through change, there will never be a moment where we reach a perfect zenith and all of our troubles are gone. So even when great things and terrible things have happened to us, we need to remain happy in the ever present moment, because that is all we ever have. If we give that up because we think happiness is something we can obtain once a certain checklist is met, we will live our lives always grasping, and never truly living.

I spent a year working as a firefighter, and it was an absolutely amazing experience. I was able to learn some amazing skills while going in to work knowing I was going to be helping those in need. For many reasons, it did not work out at the department I was at, and I chose to resign at the end of this year. For all of 2016, I believed that I had obtained the perfect job that I had wished for for so many years. Throughout that time I became comfortable with the idea of a stable paycheck and an eventual pension. That comfort blinded me to the fact that I truly did not belong there, and while I do plan on continuing a career in the field, this was not where I was going to settle down. I became so fascinated with a stable future that I tried to ignore the series of present moments in which I was not truly happy. I have lost that security and although it was difficult for me at first, I couldn’t be happier at this moment.

When you lose stability and comfort, especially in the form of a job that you depended upon, life can seem uncertain and scary. This is because you are focusing your energy upon the negative possibilities that your mind now entertains. You wonder how long you will be unemployed, how you will pay your bills, and if you will like the next job you get or if you will you be forced to work somewhere that makes you miserable. All of this dwelling in an imaginary, negative future obviously brings you down and destroys this present moment. My life is uncertain right now, but I have chosen to not let that make me live in fear. I know that a happy future is just as likely, but I will not let myself dwell on those imaginary day dreams. I am choosing to be in the present moment, and do what makes me happy. I am making some big changes in my life, writing more than I ever have before, and as of today, I have gone an entire month without eating meat beyond seafood and have never felt healthier in my life. I am doing what makes me happy, and creating the best life I can in every moment.

I have had some major failures and successes in my life, and sometimes I deal with them better than others. At this point, I have realized how foolish I was to let those large changes devastate or control my mind so much. We need to realize that the path, with all of its ups and downs, is exactly what life is about. It is all play, every moment a game. A reality in which our thoughts and choices are constantly determining pathways through an infinite number of realities. In this new year of moments, make the choice to always be happy. Make the choice to realize that change, growth, destruction and rebirth are all parts of this amazing experience and that we have the capability of enjoying ever moment we are given. It is always now, it is always your choice. You don’t need to wait until midnight for your chance, every second is a new you and every moment comes with it infinite possibility.