Look around you

Just read an interesting post on Christine Kane's blog. Her friend who has a daughter with cancer wrote her a letter that included the following:
"The outpatient clinic is a new experience for us but is a good opportunity to see other families and their children who are in different stages of this process. I was reminded of some advice that I was given when Kurt and I were in South Africa years ago. A friend told me: “If you start to feel homesick, remember, don’t look back at what you had, but rather look around.” Looking around the 4th floor of Children’s Hospital allows me to appreciate where we are and not pine for where we were a few months ago. It is with that attitude that we try to gear up for our inevitable return to the hospital."
I saw this video yesterday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jETv3NURwLc. I think these two items really speak to the source of so much of our unhappiness. A lot of us have lost the ability to live in the moment and enjoy what we have. I'm a huge believer in the idea that there is no better than here. Once you get there it will become here and then you will find another there that you want to get to. As Wayne Dyer says: Stop the chase and be a witness. I've seen a couple of different versions of this quote: All mankind's unhappiness derives from one thing: his inability to know how to be alone. I've also seen it with be still. The Buddhist's say that letting go of I is the key to happiness. The bottom line is live the moment. When you are in the park with your kids on a beautiful night there isn't anything else. This moment is not going to be better if you have a different job, house or spouse. When you're old and living in memories it will be this moment that mattered not all the other petty nonsense. The quote from the child's mother sums it up. It isn't about what you are trying to get or what you had before. It's about what you have now. Enjoy it.