Living In The Present Book Novels & Stories

I asked, testing the word like a stone I hadn't picked up in a long time. Silas looked out at the ocean, his gaze steady. "I think about it, but it doesn't hold any weight anymore. It’s like looking at a book you finished a long time ago. The characters are familiar, the events happened, but it isn't your life anymore. This," he gestured to the house, the garden, and the vast, quiet expanse of our property, "this is the present tense. It’s the only tense that matters." I nodded, feeling a profound sense of ease wash over me. We had navigated the complexities of our pasts, untangled the knots of our fears, and emerged into a space of pure, unadulterated existence.

The ability to be in the present moment and find it sufficient rather than simply the territory between the last threat and the next one. I was beginning to be able to do that. “Yes,” I said. “I think that’s accurate.” She looked at me across the kitchen island in the Thursday morning light. “Elena would be very proud of you,” she said. I looked at the rosemary plant. “I hope so,” I said. The morning continued its unhurried work. Outside, spring was doing what spring did. Inside, a life that was mine was finding its shape. One ordinary Thursday morning at a time.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

In life, there is only the present moment, the now. You can't measure time the way you measure the distance between two points. 'Time' doesn't pass. We have enormous difficulty in focusing on the present; we're always thinking about what we did, about how we could have done it better, about the consequences of our actions, and about why we didn't act as we should have. Or else we think about the future, about what we're going to do tomorrow, what precautions we should take, what dangers await us around the next corner, how to avoid what we don't want and how to get what we have always dreamed of.

She had stopped counting days around then. She had stopped thinking about after. She looked at the page with its eleven and its questions and its bisected lines and understood that she had not been living carelessly — she had been living with the specific present-tense absorption of someone who has found a life interesting enough to be in without looking past it, and that this was not a failure of planning so much as an evidence of something she had not planned for. She had not planned to find this interesting. She had not planned for any of it.

“It’s something you live when you’re certain about the present.” He was quiet for a moment. “That sounds like a promise you can keep,” he said. “Yes,” I agreed. “Because it doesn’t require pretending.” After the call, I stopped at a small shop and picked up groceries without rushing, without thinking about whether I should be doing something else. I moved through the aisles like someone who trusted their own timeline. At home, I cooked dinner and ate slowly, the apartment quiet in a way that felt lived-in instead of lonely. I didn’t feel the urge to fill the space with noise or distraction.

The secret is to never give up! The present is that moment in which you live permanently, it is this awareness of being alive, it is this need to dream. The present is that moment when you keep thinking about the past and imagining your future. The present is thus the only time that matters, the only time where you can take an action, make a difference with an attitude. The present is also the only time that should occupy your mind.

“You’re focused more on the what ifs that you’re missing what is. The present. Living in the present. And the present says we have an appointment with the adoption agency and that is a step forward if that is what you want” “And we should be happy. We should be excited for the next chapter instead of the constant worrying, because then we won’t live. We would limited by what ifs, by the possibilities” He said lowly. The lights in the bathroom made it so comfortable to have a talk there. It was a fusion of all the bright ones in a one LED that lined the edges of the wall. And still, after all that i couldn’t bring myself to tell him the truth. Maybe because it was stupid. To everyone one, it

he said. “Oh, that’s a no zone for me. I feel exhausted just thinking of it,” she said. Billie shrugged his shoulders. “Well then, let's just enjoy this ambiance,” he said. “That’s right! Let’s enjoy the present. This place is comforting,” she said. The comforting afternoon present lingers up to evening. “I didn’t realize how much of this happiness is available if only I focused on what I have in the present,” she said. “This is already happiness for you?” he asked.

The waitresses pressed their hands to their mouths, eyes shining with awe and envy as they looked on, more excited than I was. I smiled as Jimmy slid the ring onto my finger. Surrounded by 9,999 roses, I said, "Sure." Happiness was like sand in my palm. The tighter I held on, the faster it slipped through my fingers. All I could do was enjoy the moment before it faded away. For now, all I wanted was to bask in the joy and love surrounding me.

She was quiet for a moment. "I did not think I would have this," she said. Not sadly. Simply. The way she said factual things that had a large feeling inside them. "Have what specifically?" I said. "The conversation about eventually," she said. "The kind of conversation that assumes a future and populates it with things." She paused. "I have spent a long time living inside whatever was immediately in front of me because the further ahead I looked the worse it was. The future was always just more of the immediate present." She looked at the fire. "It is very new, populating the future with things."