On my birthday
I was given
As were you
A time machine
A way faring
By lusty seconds
And so moving
Fates billed
To hour credit
Surpassing daze
And weaks
A sort of colander
For casting generations
And spirited characters
Of a future entranced
Passing sentries
With unguarded lives
Vaulting destiny
By wreckless leaps
And bounds
Unleashed
Of those who might
Steel the future
Or simply junket
Never poor tending
Anything except their raze
In rapturing time itself
Never coming second
When every one
Is of won accord
Awe due
To the present
Unpassed
This poem goes out to all of you who have a birthday this year! The present is ever present. Like they say: there’s no gift like the present. The future is born of the present, and the future captures much of our attention. Nonetheless, we live our whole life in the present. The practice of mindfulness recognizes that NOW needs your full attention Of course, you can reflect on the future or the past NOW, in the present. The point is that conscious awareness is a huge part of what it means to be human and to live fully. Paying attention to our life, whatever that is at any given moment, is the stuff of life. As John Lennon so famously observed, “Life is what happens while your busy doing other things.” May the moments that you live each day make every day a birth day. As Will Rogers said, “May you live all the days of your life.”
