I may have used that post title before. I find in my advanced years that it is quite satisfying to take refuge in the very present. I realize that doing so is an impossibility. On an everyday level, by the time I note something, just in my mind or actually make a note, the event is already in the past. I read once that William James, an important contributor to psychology of his day and to philosophy, said that we should extend our notion of the present to the current 17 seconds. For a flighty mind like mine, it is relaxing and novel to take full recognition and deliberate sight of me, my partner and what I can see of current happenings around me.
I find that it is a big help to have some suggested topics to write about and I use a spiral notebook to list up to five possible themes. Sometimes, I don't think of five and some times, I think of more. I do notice plenty of contradictions and omissions in my thinking. Yesterday was the first day of using a new notebook, my third. It is a bit exciting to see a whole fresh notebook that awaits inspirational jottings as well as idiotic ones.
I enjoy being able to search my posts and I just used that feature to try to see if I have used "What's happening?" as a title before. I have read all sorts of modern research results that show our eyes and parts of our minds perceive events and feelings literally before we know it. Both David Eagleman ("Incognito") and Lisa Feldman Barrett ("Seven and a Half Lessons about Your Brain") emphasize that in microseconds our tools of perception and intention do their work and subsequently let our conscious minds know what is happening. You can also see John Bargh's "Before You Know It".
(Search tells me I did use the title "What's happening?" on Nov. 18, 2016. With 4,957 posts, I can't remember everything I have typed.)
