In New Zealand we are preparing to mark the 21st anniversary of the founding of the four communities here at Michaelmas 1989. As good as it is to look back over the last 21 years, such a celebration is also a good moment to look forward. Looking forward in space is a reasonably easy task. We simply look with our eyes at the way ahead and continue onwards. If we really look where we are going then it’s less likely that we will stumble or bang into something. But looking forward in time is somewhat more difficult. What do we look with? We look into the past with our memory – and most of us know how easy it is to be deceived by our recollections!

What we normally do with the future is plan on the basis of what we think is needed, and what we think we or someone else would like. We look to an estimate of necessity and to the intimations of desire. Is there a better way? When we look back we are recalling what was once the future! Some say that what we do right now creates and determines the future. Well, the future is only ever to be experienced in our present experience. We can never experience ‘the future’- tomorrow never comes and yesterday will never be again – but today lives right here, right now! Looking back and looking forward are resolved when we look into our heart right now and live in tune with every heart beat. Our eyes are opened. We no longer wonder what will come, but rather create into the stream of life – meeting it, enhancing it, blessing it – and realising that we are meeting ourselves and making ourselves. The future is our becoming – and that’s worth looking forward to.

Posted by Kevin Coffey