The "Now" Always Becomes the "Back Then"

We can get so caught up in our “now’s.” It’s only natural to. The pain can hurt so intensely. The love can overwhelm us. All we see is the heightened emotion of what we are currently going through.

Some times the “now” is all we can see. It feels like nothing will ever change. We fail to see how we could ever fight with the man we just fell in love with. How we could ever feel alive and well again after fighting an illness or disease for so long. We don’t know how the pain of something will ever pass – for it’s so close to our heart. So deep. Strong. The tears rise up in our throats so often.

But happen it does.

Time passes. The sun comes out again and we awake to that day that turns out to be different than the rest. We turned a corner.

No longer do we feel the sting of that pain quite so harshly.

We feel the change. Of something.

And eventually, the corner of change, too, is gone.

The “now” – the “now” that overshadowed our whole world and took over everything – becomes the “back then.”

 A shadow behind us. A glimmer in the past. A piece of the whole story of our life.

We reminisce. We see in hindsight, what we couldn’t see in the “now.” We see “more” of the “whole.” And we are fuller, more complete because of what we’ve been through – good or bad.

We may still feel a touch of those deep emotions from the “back then” – but they have new meaning. New depths. For life has added to them in some way or form.

You see, “now” isn’t all we have. We have so much more. And if you just hang in there, things will change. Time will change them. For good or bad. But whichever it is, that too, will change. And  you will look in the rearview mirror of your heart and see that the “now” you never thought would change has become, somehow, the “back then.” It’s gone. Over. Completed.

New hurdles and joys will always await us. That’s the beauty of navigating life. So enjoy your “now.” Hang in there and grit your teeth in your “now.” For before you know it, it will turn into your “back then” and you will reach out to touch it with your heart and see how it made you into who you are today.

Someone more complete.