Can we ever TRULY live in the present?

 Living in the present. It sounds so simple doesn't it?  

Live every moment in the now.   

It sounds quite easy as if the words somehow imply that it's not only ordinary, but rather mundane. You know what I'm taking about, don't you. The television show, the night it with friends. The big game or vacation you've been looking forward to for weeks (if not even months).

And then, like a flash is over. Finished. A memory, however sweet, a memory.    

You look back fondly, thinking how events unfolded, how life was enhanced, changed, enriched... But yet, it's in the past..    I mean I'm sure we LIVED in that moment and we thoroughly enjoyed that moment, right? But yet it's a memory.  It's closed. It's in the past.

Like my childhood. I'm sure it's around here somewhere, but yet it keeps getting further away and more difficult to place. I remember crisp October Saturday mornings in Batavia, New York. Well, the outskirts of East Pembroke anyway. It seems like yesterday.     

Crisp October mornings, and crisp October afternoons.

Walking through corn fields, the woods, and then just plain regular fields. The sun just behind those very gray skies.. Ah, those beautiful gray skies... Crows cawing in the distance, a rabbit trail, the smell of October in the air... But, it's now simply a memory. 1983, or was it 1984?

No computers, no cell phones, just me and existence. But that's not the 'now' is it? I mean, I live in the now don't I?  I mean we all do, don't we? Or,  do we hang continuously on yesterday or tomorrow, or some event that needs to, or should, or should not be taking place.   

How can this be defined? I mean right now I'm writing a blog about the present, thinking about the past, thinking about the future without the slightest conception of the present. Ok, maybe a hint of the present... But yet, these words simply draw me back to something else. Beyond the now, beyond what life is actually supposed to be.   

Living in the present is very simple, but yet so very difficult at the same time. I'm sure each of you have TRIED to live in the present, but for only a moment. That's what's so strange. Try as we might, we seemingly always end up in the past or the future. The present is ever there and ever elusive. Why is that? Why are we striving to relive moments of the past, or calculating moments in the future, and disregarding the present now?  

What's funny is as i write this, I ponder how it might be received... Thinking more of the reception than the sentiment. Strange.   

Living in the present moment is quite difficult, and I wonder why that is. I mean, I have a great life. Great kids, great wife, great everything. So, what is it that forces one to focus on the past, or focus on the future without the mere consideration of the present?    

It's  almost like I need a strict daily regiment of  'present focusness'... But yet that's delving into the the future. Like rehab for the non-present deviant.    

I'm sure there's more I need to write on this, but I can't help thinking about what I need to do tomorrow and I need sleep.  But there I go. Living in another time other than the present.