This is the real secret of life—to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now.
—Alan Watts
After a long and arduous hunt in 1888, Theodore Roosevelt finally got the bull caribou he had been tracking. “It was one of those moments,” he later wrote, “that repay the hunter for days of toil and hardship; that is if he needs repayment, and does not find life in the wilderness pleasure enough in itself.”
A hunter who enjoys only bagging their quarry is likely to be a disappointed hunter, nine times out of ten. More important, they are a blind and deaf hunter who needlessly misses out on the majesty of life outdoors. And the parent who thinks this is an occupation you “win,” who believes parenting is measured mostly by those special, big moments, is missing a lot of majestic life as well.
It’s not about the future, about getting through the terrible twos or terrible teens to some idyllic end result. The next milestone is not there to assure us the days of toil and hardship were worth it. We can’t forget to notice and appreciate the little pleasures of the experience, the right here and now.
Find pleasure enough in what’s present today.