“Live in the moment.”

Seems simple, doesn’t it? Yet sometimes living in the moment feels as challenging as riding a wild stallion. We try and try, but it just keeps bucking us off and getting away.

As human beings, we are gifted with the ability to recall our past and anticipate our future. We can see in our mind’s eye where we have been, and visualize where we may be. This tremendous trait allows us to elevate our sense of being above that of other animals. However, this ability can also get us stuck in moments gone by or moments yet to come, at the expense of the moment we are in.

Part of this, I think, is human nature. We value recollection, and we cannot help but anticipate. Another cause, I argue, is the traditional view many hold of history; that it is a linear path with one event or decision producing the next and the next, ultimately leading toward a conclusion.

What if we look at history—both in a greater context and on the level of our individual life—as a collection of experiences, decisions and outcomes that lead not to a predestined conclusion, but rather to a culmination of the interplay of vast and varied human moments?

Why worry about what may come, or act with fundamentalist certainty, when so often humans are proven wrong? (heck, I might be wrong right now!) What if we moved forward with a sense of freedom of decision-making, and reveled in the uncertainty of human life rather than allowing it to cause us anxiety? Perhaps we can more fully live in each moment if we allow it to be separate from our past and not pre-determinant of our future, but rather an experience of who and where we are right now.