Russh: Presence Vs Certainty

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a psychic. Eager for her to gaze into her crystal ball and lay my future before me, the 90-minute meeting – instead of bringing clarity – plunged me into a state of chaos. Aside from a renewed focus on the road – the psychic insisted I’d daydream my way into a catastrophic car crash – my date with destiny made me question my motivations. As I drove away, clinging to the wheel for dear life, I wondered if seeing into the future is really all it’s cracked up to be. Did I really need to know? Hadn’t I once spent a week at a meditation retreat learning, among other things, to live in the moment?

Though constantly seeking equilibrium in our work lives, we rarely give much thought to striking a balance between practicing presence and our cravings for certainty. Between embracing the moment to live mindfully, and the very human desire to want to know what the future holds.

In a society that encourages us to constantly look to the next thing – to keep making plans, setting goals, ticking to-dos off the list – our whole lives become future-focused. We keep squinting ahead as days slip by and those nuanced moments – a loved one’s crinkled smile, a flicker of nervous eye contact over ciders with a boy who’s been on your mind, that first lick of sweet gelato on a sticky day – go unnoticed.