Something truly bizarre has happened with my work computer, which means--among other things--that I every day when I go into my email I have only the messages that I've received in the last 12 hours or so. (Note to worried people-who-have-emailed-me: I will eventually get all the email back, and I promise I'll respond to you).
But the whole experience has me thinking about our attempts to live in the moment, and how much our lives fight against that hope. What if we really only
did have the present moment? What if we only ever had emails from the last 12 hours, or to-do lists for the day, or worries for...oh I don't know, even just the week. I know that I'm finding something remarkably relaxing about having my inbox filled only with the details and the concerns of the very-present moment. Imagine not seeing, when you log in, the hundred emails that you haven't yet responded to and you're sure require your immediate attention.
Eventually my inbox will be re-filled with all those old emails. And perhaps eventually I will fulfill my lifelong dream of actually going through all those emails and dealing with them once and for all. But in the meantime I'm really hoping that I can hang on to the sense of presence-to-the-moment that my email woes have created.
