Living here and now

First I wrote this sentence:
Writing this blog, and limiting myself to describe what I see, hear and experience HERE, forces me to concentrate on what is happening to me NOW, and to make the IFs and the WHYs smaller in my head.

Then I thought a little more about what I had written, and decided to do a Google search.
That way I found a book called "Here and Now, A Spiritual Journey" by a man named Henri J. M. Nouwen .
I found out that Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932 - 1996) had been a priest, an author and a professor who wrote about 40 books on spirituality.
Through Amazon I could read some of the pages in "Here and Now. A Spiritual Journey" online.
On page 17 in his book I read Without the "Oughts" and "Ifs"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0824519671/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link
(Hope this link works.)

Without knowing about other aspects of his writings, the following part felt true to my present way of thinking.

You ought to have done something other than what you did, you ought to have said something other than what you did.
These thoughts keep us feeling guilty about the past and prevent us from being fully present to the moment.

Worse, however, than our guilt are our worries. Our worries fill our lives with "What ifs": What if I lose my job, what if my father dies, what if there is not enough money, what if the economy goes down, what if a war breaks down.

I do NOT feel bad about the choices I made.
There were good and bad choices.
But that is the past and cannot be changed.
I learnt a lot from the journey itself.
I have had an interesting life so far.
I don't feel guilt for the "Ifs"

When I think about it now, I feel the worries of "What ifs"
for the future became, through the years,
so strong I could not enjoy the present.

Thanks, Henri J.M. Nouwen for helping me sort that out.