“Forever is composed of nows” – Emily Dickinson
This quote jumped out at me, as I had been recently contemplating what “forever” means. The ‘last’ brother-in-law died this past week; a man who has been in my world since my adolescence. Nearly two decades older than I, he has been a part of my life ‘forever.’ My life. His life. Your life. What is forever?
Phrases abound: forever and a day…. I’ll love you/hate you forever …. always and forever…..forever and ever, amen … it’s taking for-evv-er …. and, thanks to Bob Dylan, ‘Forever Young.’ {Really; thanks Bob!!} The resonance of Dickinson’s quote is the recognition, for me, that in order for something to be ‘forever’ it must be actively held in the now … day after day after day … now after now after now. The accumulation of Nows creates the forever.
A thought, a belief, a doctrine, a guiding principle; a dogma, resentment, or prayer … to have power they must be thought, believed, practiced, sworn, sworn at, or supplicated on a daily basis. Forever is not some nebulous place “out there.” It is here and now. If I want to see it and feel it in my life ‘out there,’ I must bring it into my life here and now, daily.
Jim believed, like millions of others of a pure science mindset, that at the end of life is … end. Nothing. Nada. Journey’s Complete. He was not nihilistic, for he believed that living a life had purpose. The testament of the life lived was … how the life was lived. (His resonated being of service.) However, Others’ memories of the individual were what constituted this ‘forever’ people speak of.
My belief, like billions of others, is that there is a continuation of essence once one departs this physical form. The Energetic essence lives on, simply in another form. Quantum physics? Religious teachings? Law of Attraction? Spiritual and Etheric teachings? 12-Step? Who truly knows. (May be that the memories of Others is where that essence shifts into another form: thoughts and rememberings. Again, who knows for certain?)
If you choose to keep something alive forever, gotta keep it now, though. If you want the tomorrow to be as good as today ~ or even better, gotta practice it now. If you envision freedom from fears and resentments, don’t keep ’em festering and alive now; be willing to release them … now.
Contemplating the creation of a forever-kind-of-life? Do it now. Stop contemplating, and do it now. Forever comes along awfully darned fast ! Now. Forever is now. Namaste’ indeed.