The Only Now

There was never any more inception than there is now,

Not any more youth or age than there is now;

And will never be any more perfection than there is now,

Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.

Walt Whitman wrote those thoughts in his 1855 work, Leaves of Grass. Emerson called the book the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed. It was the first volume of its kind, and it stands on its own in the world of poetic literature. The messages in the book are delivered in a relaxed style. The sexual candor, racial bonding, and democratic unity, that is expressed in the poems, compliment and affirm the connection of all life in ordinary terms.

Whitman’s thoughts about the now ring a bell of awareness, but that bell was muffled in the 19th century. Now had a different meaning back then. Now was a mixture of the past and the future. Now has been redefined in this now. The meaning of the word is rooted in the endless sand of consciousness where simultaneous experiences awakened in linear style. We dress for the occasion of now in flowing garments of thoughts and beliefs, and realize now is where the spirit meets the flesh.

Heaven and hell are filled with duplicity, and the separation is boiling over into a sea of distorted religious conundrums. Our beliefs are manifested in the now and we feel them as we focus on them now. The only now is the now each one of us creates. It is the playground of physical consciousness and the training ground for the experiencing other realities.