And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.” —-Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five

I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” —-Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano

We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing wings on the way down.” —-Kurt Vonnegut, If This Isn’t Nice, What Is,” Advice for the Young

It is late(ish) in my world and has been a pretty uneventful day.

I was checking the weather (cold) and email (ads) when I popped over to Facebook and saw the story about Kurt Vonnegut buying an envelope that a friend had posted. I love this story so much and wanted to share it (and a few other quotes I found while spiraling down the rabbit hole that is the Internet.)

“And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope.” This reminds me of a cartoon I saw years and years and years ago (Family Circle I think) that has stuck in my head for all of this time. In the cartoon the little boy had been asked by his mother to run a simple errand. The cartoon then mapped out the route (which was NOT a straight line) that the child had taken to get from the house to the store while his mother was left wondering what was taking him so long.

It is not the act purchasing the envelope that is important. As his wife mentioned, he could go online and by a box of a hundred and never have to step outside. It is the act of leaving the house that makes the difference. Buying the envelopes online would cheat him out of 100 different outings. 100 different opportunities to take the long route, to meander through different side streets, interact with or observe strangers. 100 different stories and adventures to write about and be a part of. 100 different chances to be a playwright or an actor.

Life truly is made up of little things.

Little moments.

Little adventures.

Little interactions that become big things.

Little things we can never experience if we never leave the house.

It is all out there along the detours, and impromptu stops and missed green lights, in all of the meandering byways between points A and B.

And I would say “It is all out there waiting” but I don’t think that it is. Waiting I mean. I think it is all going on and happening if we are there to witness or be a part of it or not. Life and the moments that make up it, are not paused until we decide to join in. Life is going on all around us all of the time. We just need to do something as simple as “buying an envelope” to be a part of it all.

And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.”

I imagine the answer to this one is, the present is as infinite as the future. It is as wide and deep as you dare allow it to be. It is as wide as the point you are willing to swim out to and as deep as you are willing to dive. And all of it is yours to keep. All that you can carry. And that I suppose is the catch, you must carry it with you. The joy and the sadness and the weight of it all. You must open yourself up to the present. Be in the moment and allow the moment to be in you……