Art work by Carina Francioso
In the Now
What keeps us from living in the now?
Perhaps it is nostalgia that binds us to yesterday
or hope that leads us to tomorrow.
And yet there was a time in which the present
belonged to us, remember?
As a child there was no space for the past
Everything was a game, a discovery, a passion
Until we moved further away from ourselves.
– from the Italian poem “L’oggi” by Anna Ciardullo Villapiana,
English Translation by Carina Francioso
A sweet friend of mine sent me a book with Italian poems as something to pass my time while my fractures are healing. As I am reading the poem above, I am listening to the sounds of spring that enter through the open window. There is the humming of a lawn mower, birds chirping, a few children playing outside, and I am involuntarily transported back to my childhood.
Afternoons felt long, Sundays back then seemed endless. There was this feeling of a whole wonderful day stretching in front of me. Time for leisure, for play, for stillness… rolling down the hill or just sitting on the lawn, feeling the earth underneath and the lush grass, picking daisies, connecting them to a reef to place on my head; looking for four leafed clovers, and feeling so lucky when I found one, knowing that I just had to look long enough; dandelions weren’t weeds back then, they were marvellous wonders in their white costume to be blown all over the back yard.
As children the present really belonged to us, our mind could so easily just be in the now. Today, I need my daily meditation or a vacation—or two broken legs—to be in the same way, to be completely in the now. Sometimes I long to be five years old again to feel like time is standing still, like I have nowhere to go, nowhere to be but here.
That longing inside comes from our soul, which needs to stop to contemplate our humanness and the journey that we are on. It needs to feel gratitude and joy. It needs to slow down at times, right down to almost stand-still, to feel our true essence.
“True Essence” by Carina Francioso
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Angelika, greendoorrelaxation@yahoo.ca, 905-286-9466