I was recently watching one of those feel good Christmas movies on Netflix (at least I suspected the ending would be a feel good ending, based on other Christmas movies I had watched previously)     But…..I just couldn’t wait to see the ending and so I fast forwarded through the movie to see the ending. It did end positively, but it also fell a little flat on me.  So I proceeded to go back and watch the part of the movie I had skipped through earlier.

My family and others that know me will tell you that I have a habit of doing this…..looking to the ending of books before I have completed them, OR  wanting to hear the plot and ending of movies before I actually see the movies.  I am impatient – I have difficulty waiting for things to unfold, and sitting in tension, and in the twists and turns of the movies or books.

If I know the ending ahead of time, somehow it makes the discomfort of the present more tolerable.

But the downside of this is that it takes away from the moment at hand. I don’t completely live in the moment

Kind of like life – Would I really want to know how my life was going to unfold if I were given the opportunity? I would love to know the joys, but the heartaches – that is another matter. There would be many life experiences that I would actually dread if I knew about them in advance. I would probably find myself even more distracted from the present, knowing the challenges around the corner.

Back to the movie – When I visited the parts of the movie I had earlier skipped,  I saw the twists and turns of the plot, and the building of relationships and of the characters and their experiences, and the ending became much more connecting and fulfilling.

A lesson to me – when I live in the future, I miss the present – the intertwining of relationships, the conversations and connections I make in the moment, the underlying themes that are unfolding in my life. I miss each sacred moment.

May I remember this experience and live in the moment.