Just this last weekend, we went out with some friends that we’ve just met from Italy, Guisy and Jacopo. They just arrived in the U.S. and are here to study linguistics in a PhD program at UCLA. As we were walking I asked Guisy if she was homesick. She said, “No, because I am way to busy. In Italy it is easy to live in the moment. The idea of living in the moment is from the Latin, carpe diem, or ‘seize the day.’ In the U.S., I am constantly thinking about the future.”
Can you think back to a moment in your life when you weren’t thinking in a future-oriented way? As she mentioned carpe diem, I felt a sense of longing for those moments when I was fully present, reveling in the now. I believe there is reflective-thinking (focus on the past), present-thinking (carpe diem), and future-thinking (focus on the future). All are important at different times, but, culturally, we Americans could stand to be a bit more Italian in this regard. (Or, at least, I know I could stand to be more in the moment, enjoying the good gifts of God right before me).
Hopefully, as you read this you’ll have a moment today where you can say you were fully present.
Dustin F. James 