We all have heard about this multiple times – live in the present, forget the past, who knows about the future, why worry about it and so on. What does this mean? Can we really forget the past? Can we really not do anything about the future? I did prod multiple times on this and then could think of something which explained much of this to me.
I believe that when we were born God offered us a pencil. In the early parts of our life many people around us used this pencil to write about our life, deciding on what we should and should not do, what’s right, what’s wrong and many other such beliefs were ingrained. When we grew a bit older we started using the pencil ourselves, albeit with caution, not sure the best way to use it. We wrote our life bit from what had been ingrained till now and bit on what we heard was best.
A bit more years into our life we now understood somewhat better on what God had offered us – a pencil that helps us on the path of our life. We started using the pencil, making the path for our life. We made mistakes and wanted to erase them. But we were unable to undo our mistakes. At these times our pencil also did not write well and we wondered why. At other times we wrote too fast, wanting to go ahead and leave everyone behind. The pencil then broke. It took us a long time to find ways to sharpen it and bring it to shape. Slowly we started learning to use the pencil appropriately.
There will come a moment when we all learn the real meaning of the pencil – the one we hold in our hand, the one that no one else can use. How we use the pencil best will define the gist of our remaining life.
We will learn that the pencil’s best use is to write and even draw a beautiful present.
We will understand that we need to learn from the past, not forgetting our mistakes – God did not provide us the eraser as he did not want us to erase the past. Of course, we will still make mistakes. But we will learn to learn from them and become better.
At times we will write too fast, too excited to make the present best. The pencil will then become blunt and the present hazy. We will need a sharpener – but God has not provided this too. We will then need to find ways to sharpen the pencil. It will take some time to start writing clearly again.
At other times we will think too much about the future and try write about it in a way that will spoil the present. The pencil will break. We will now need to find more ways to sharpen it. This time it will be harder and will takes us longer to bring the pencil back to shape.
The best use of the pencil of life is to write a great present, learning from the past and carving the way for a satisfying future.