A couple of weeks ago, I saw an elderly gentleman in my office. He had started getting short term memory loss. He is a well-educated person, and he realized he suffered from early Alzheimer's Dementia. That's always the toughest stage to deal with emotionally. That's because the patient knows his memory is slipping and he realizes where he's headed.
"I know I'm headed towards the dark side," he said, with a sad smile.
"I'm sorry," I said, pulling a chair next to him. I didn't know what else to say. "Seeing a specialist might help."
"I'll see the specialist, doc," he said. "But I know it won't help much. But I'm okay. I'm dealing with it."
"How are you dealing with it?" I couldn't help asking.
"I can't remember what happened this morning. But I know what's happening right now. I don't know how long this is going to last, but as long as it does, I am going to live in the moment."
"Live in the moment?" I asked.
"Yes, doc. Should have done this a long time ago. Most of my life I lived in the past and worried about the future."
The conversation was inspiring for me. There was a lesson for me here. Life does unfold in the present. I want to go on vacation when I'm at work and I worry about work piling up when I'm on vacation. Our social lives weave a web of relationships around us. How intricate or complicated we want this web to be depends solely on ourselves. A mind that bounces from thought to thought, ruminates in the past and worries about the future, cannot live in the present. The past is a good place to visit, but try not to live there.
"Don't let your yesterdays use up too much of your todays." ~ Cherokee Indian proverb
.
