We can’t predict the future. We can only walk the path that’s lit before our feet. That’s as far as the eye can see. The path may diverge 100 times, and take us to lands we’d never dreamed of before (and perhaps also to lands we have, in fact, dreamed of all our lives), but all we can see right now are the few steps just ahead.
Better to walk them, I think, and satisfy our heart’s longing for travel, than to stay stuck, rooted to one spot, for the rest of our lives.
There are many things that cause the heart to fear. One of the most powerful is the desire to know what will happen before it does. This particular habit makes up the bulk of our worry and dread, because it keeps us from experiencing the present as it is meant to be felt – in color, in life, with active attention to the sensations of one moment in time.
When our minds begin to lead us far from the moment we inhabit, then we get pulled down the path of forgetting or worry. What I mean is, when we are tempted to consider the outcome of the thing we are engaged in doing – or when we start to feel anxious about the absence of things we want – the only result is a sort of restless impatience and a propensity toward despair.
This happens because we are not living from a place of trust – that fertile and solid land where all the trees grow wild with fruit, where you can rest and simply take in the vision of a landscape that’s beautiful and at ease….
…
Wishing I were free. Wishing I could float into another realm, where the apples are ripe for the picking and the water runs pure and clear.
Where is the path that leads to happier ends?
O My God,
When I look into the future, I am frightened,
But why plunge into the future?
Only the present moment is precious to me,
As the future may never enter my soul at all.
It is no longer in my power to change, correct, or add to the past;
For neither sages nor prophets could do that.
And so what the past has embraced I must entrust to God.
O present moment, you belong to me, whole and entire.
I desire to use you as best I can.
And although I am weak and small,
You grant me the grace of Your omnipotence.
And so, trusting in Your mercy,
I walk through life like a little child,
Offering You each day this heart
Burning with love for Your greater Glory.
-St. Faustina Kowalska
