heart within and God overhead

An officemate forwarded the "Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It was one of those office emails that came out of nowhere, amidst memos and work instructions but it struck me deep. It is in these moments that I hear God speaking loudly and clearly to me: reassuring me and reminding me to just trust.

Longfellow wrote about how we live with the grave as the goal, and we act as though enjoyment or sorrow is our destined end or way.

And one stanza stood out for me than the rest:
Trust no future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, ~ act in the living Present!
Heart within, and GOD o'erhead!

We live our lives so carefully and cautiously that sometimes, we fail to actually notice what is happening around us. And we forget that we cannot actually live in the past nor in the future. What we have, and what we know is NOW.

I’ve been guilty of this so many times. I even wrote a ten-year plan in excel outlining my life plans then spent the two weeks after worrying about my finances five years down the road. I spent sleepless nights worrying what will happen tomorrow. And I am always afraid to risk or take the leap because I wasn’t sure of the outcome.

It took a gentle reminder from someone who loves me and a Sunday afternoon walk underneath the trees to make me stop and breathe in the PRESENT. And what wonder these two hours gave me, because at that moment, I was inexplicably happy to just be me. No worries and regrets. Maybe Longfellow was trying to tell us through his poem that the true heroes are those who take in every moment, not long after it has happened or before it has taken place.

Let us, then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.