Yesterday, I bought some milk so I could make cappuccino at home, which I hadn’t done in a while. This morning, during my meditation, I caught myself full of anticipation. I started debating in my head: “What kind of coffee do I want? Will I start with black, as usual? Or go straight to latte macchiato, perhaps even add some sugar?”
Naturally, that debate took away my focus from the present, and when I returned to it, I realized: “This is a future that’s only moments away, and yet here I am, obsessing over it.” The decision of what kind of coffee you’ll have is totally inconsequential, but it is still a bridge you should cross — like any other in life — when you come to it. No sooner, no later.
Ironically, sometimes, the closer the future gets, the more time we spend thinking about it. As if we could magnetically draw it towards us by sacrificing present moments. But that intersection we’re about to pass — the home we hope we’ll get to buy, the selection of a task from our to-do list, the choice of coffee at Starbucks — will offer whatever directions it offers by the time we reach it. No sooner, no later.
Even if the future is so close that, like a fine coffee placed on a counter near you, you can almost smell it, resist the temptation. Stay in the now. Take life one ticking second at a time, and trust that, whenever the future may finally arrive, you’ll always be ready.