“Live in the moment,” we read.

Truly live.

Just for this moment there is no yesterday.

No tomorrow.

We’re simply here.

Now.

“The potency of the moment is enough to knock us back into the place of the heart, if we can just take the time to notice it.” ~ Todd Norian

I often ask myself, with a child-like imagination, eyes up to the clouds, what happens to those “unlived moments” if we do not truly notice them?

What happens to all the things that are there, here, now, waiting for us to experience them?

The feelings, the sensations, the tastes, the touches, the words we hear and say.

The other people, other beings, we don’t quite link with.

The connectedness to others we don’t quite make because we don’t quite live in the moment to really, truly experience it and share it with those around us.

What can help remind us to come back to the here and the now, and wonder and marvel at simply being?

I ask myself,

“What do we miss if we constantly are living in the past, or racing into the future, without really appreciating and loving and truly, truly living this moment, here, now?” 

“The moment,” I answer to myself, eyes still watching the clouds, will still be here.

But we won’t connect with it. It will not live with us. It becomes one of the “unlived moments.”

So, when I find myself dwelling on the past, or my mind anxiously racing ahead into an unknown future, I remind myself to take care of the present.

To love it.

To appreciate it.

To share it with those all around me. I don’t want the moment to go unloved or unlived.

And so, I wrote these words.

This is where the unspoken words go

The “sorry” we didn’t quite say

The “I love you” that got away

 

This is where the lost moments are found

The sunsets we didn’t quite see

The first kisses that didn’t quite be

 

This is where missed touches remain

The missed hug to the friend long gone

Unlinked hands to that song unsung

 

This is where the unknown lovers are

The embrace we never did know

The life inside us that never did grow

 

This is where echoes the “what ifs” of moments that could have been

Spoken

Touched

Seen

 

So, when life whispers gently in your ear

Take the chance

Dance that dance

Let far be near

Marvel at every wonder

Love to your core

For it is right here, in this moment

That the unlived is no more

 

Love elephant and want to go steady?

Sign up for our (curated) daily and weekly newsletters!

Author: Lorna Marquès-Brocksopp

Apprentice Editor: Brandie Smith/Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photo: Purple Sherbert Photography/Flickr