Do you ever read something or hear something that you just know is true? I bumped into a quote today from the Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, “Life must be lived forward, but it can only be understood backward.(Rohr, Richard. Wondrous Encounters : Scripture for Lent (p. 32). Franciscan Media. Kindle Edition.)“

I have been meditating on it all day.

It’s just stuck my mind like a splinter in the brain. It’s like I can’t escape it.

Life must lived forward…

We can’t stop it. Life is going to do what life does regardless of what want. There are times when my adult children are home and I walk into their rooms and they are sleeping and as I look on their faces I can seethe child that they once were. Perhaps this is the desire many of us have to slow time. We can’t slow it down.

It’s not possible.

Life will be lived. As Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park says, “Life always finds a way.” We cannot slow time, we cannot stop time, life must be lived. The sooner we accept the reality that life is moving forward the sooner we can embrace it.

Life can only be understood backwards…

In the midst of the living and the ticking of the clock we will struggle to find understanding and meaning. Instead of trying to find the meaning in the moment we might want to consider seeking to live fully in the moment first.

I wonder, what have I missed in my life by trying to perceive the meaning in the moment as opposed to living into it? How much joy have I robbed myself of?

Life is understood backward. As we look back on life with the perspective of time and experience we are able to see the meaning of the past moment.

I so desperately want to free myself from demanding meaning in the moment. I want to embrace it for itself. I want to be right here and right now as fully as I can be.

Perhaps this is the way to learn to be content in every situation?