Have you ever tried to cross a bridge before you got to it? Wait… don’t answer that so quickly.

Have you ever tried to live tomorrow today? Nope… don’t answer that either.

Have you ever tried to finish a project before you started it? Hey… I said to stop answering.

See I am asking because I would have to answer yes, if I am being honest, and I bet you would too. No? Really? You think these are silly notions. Okay well, congratulations and you can quit reading now. As for anyone curious enough to keep reading, here’s my point: stop trying to cross that bridge you have not even gotten to yet.

Bridges are meant to join two sections of land over an obstacle of some sort. If you are driving, it is physically impossible to cross a bridge before you get to it. Let that sink in a little. Even though we know it is ridiculous to try to drive across a bridge we cannot see, in our “thinking” lives we often try to cross that bridge, that thing (whatever it may be)  before we are any where near it. Are you starting to understand the analogy?

We let the premature crossing steal space in our minds. We spend excessive amounts of time worrying and asking: what is coming next, what does the future hold, what if this, what if that, how did we do it last time, how did someone else do it? We either obsess over planning, processing, questioning to the point of insanity (both ours and others around us) OR we get so overwhelmed by the vastness that we just shut down and do nothing (my tendency is the latter). Either way we forget to enjoy today, this hour, this moment, and before we know it time/life/people/health has slipped away from us. Gone. Poof. Bye.

Now the bridge is under us and what do we have? An ulcer? High blood pressure? Anxiety meds? No friends? A cluttered house? A mass of unfinished projects? An extra 30 pounds of fat? All because we tried to cross too early. Often the bridge is not even what we expected or feared. Sometimes we never even get to the bridge. Directions change. Roads diverge. We get rerouted. Thinking too far ahead will leave us confused and frustrated.

Yes plan, dream, hope, but first LIVE in the today. Be present. Be patient. Stop worrying about things too far away to really see. Stop driving yourself and others crazy. Today matters.

The bridge can wait until we get to it.

I will leave you with this thought:

“We so idolize and glamorize the past, and we have all these fantasies about the future, that it makes us despair in the present.” – Tony Seigh