The beauty of now

Life is a funny thing. Lived forwards, it can seem chaotic, uncomfortable, and painfully slow. But somehow time washes the not-so-pleasant away, leaving the beauty behind.

In the UK, I didn't think it was possible to miss a place as much as I missed KL. I now know that it's possible.

I didn't think I'd ever find myself missing it. All I saw, for most of my eight months there, was how much I was missing back home. But looking backwards, time did its funny little tricks, and I am struck by how beautiful my time there was.

I find myself, again, wishing I was back in a place that feels familiar - although ironically, it didn't feel familiar at the time. Yet I know that going back is not the answer. Things won't be the same again. I'd have to adjust all over again, and I'd find myself missing other familiar things here. 

Such is life... and such is time. It gives past memories a makeover, transforming them into beauty. Yet it's the very thing that keeps you from living the same moment twice.

I think that means we need to be more careful about the time we let slip through our fingers. 

We can't hold on to anything in life, that's for sure. But we can look past the chaos and unpleasantness of the moment and see all the beauty the present contains.

Maybe time works this way because if we got all the good and beautiful things in life at one go, we wouldn't be able to fully savour it or know what to do with it. 

There's beauty in the past, in memories. There's beauty in hope for the future, in dreams. But the only beauty we can really hold, touch, taste, experience... is that in the present.

So always keep a little bit of the beauty of the past and future in your heart, but don't let it blind you to that of the present. 

Because there is always something beautiful around us, I believe. At every single moment in our lives.

Sometimes I'm scared to embrace the beauty of today, because I'm scared I won't have room in my heart alongside so many beautiful memories of the past.

But the heart always makes room. 

Sometimes I live so much for the idea of a 'better' tomorrow, that I look back and regret not fully appreciating yesterday, by which time it's too late to go back.

Be present. This moment, this day, is all you really have. 

See the beauty in it.

Slow down.

Cherish the little things.

Savour the good things.

Remember that everything will pass, the good and bad.

But it's your choice which to focus on.

"Life is short. Break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile.... 

...Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain