Shannon

“For Watts, the only moment we can depend on is the present: that which we know and sense right now. The past is gone. The future, to which we devote so much of our brainpower, is an unstable element, entirely unknowable, “a will-o’-the-wisp that ever eludes our grasp.” When we endlessly ruminate over distant times, we miss extraordinary things in the present moment. These extraordinary things are, in actual fact, all we have: the here and now. The direct perception of our senses. Whenever I return to Watts’s work, a small, rebellious voice rises up in me and shouts: That’s not fair! Life is more secure for some people than for others! But that doesn’t make his wisdom any less true. Watts isn’t offering us a cheap, puffed-up solution to the vagaries of life. He isn’t telling us that if we can only master this small trick of thought, all our dreams will come to fruition. He is telling us the truth. Change will not stop happening. The only part we can control is our response.”
― Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times