I am one of those people that have a problem with staying in the present. A dear friend would always tell me “what if’s live in the desert and yeah buts live in the swamps”. It was her way of telling me that I was not focusing on the present. Meditation can help me focus on the present. Trying to live in the moment is very important to me. That way I am not influenced by whirling tumble weeds from the furture or big slippery mud balls from the past.

Time Traveling Game

“I’m getting to be a real veteran at this time traveling game!” - The Atom*

Dr. Raymond Palmer, Ray to his friends, is a physicist at Ivy University in Ivy Town. Ray is working on a way to compress objects and make them smaller for a brief time. Using the matter from a “White Dwarf Star” he is able to shrink the objects but when they return to normal size they explode. While on a field trip with his students and his girl friend Jean Loring the expedition is trapped in a cave. Ray must use the shrinking device on himself to help Jean and his students escape. Something in his body prevents him from exploding. Ray creates a special treated matrix fabric which shrinks with him and a special belt that controls his shrinking. Using the moniker, the Atom, Ray becomes a superhero. Besides the opportunities in scientific adventures, Ray and Professor Alpheus V Hyatt developed a “Time Pool”, which allowed the Atom to shrink and slip through the barrier of time. Using the “time pool” the Atom was able to meet the great scientific minds from the past.

Time is the measured period which an action, process or condition exists in a non-spatial continuum that is related in terms of events succeeding one another as the Past, Present and Future. With that said, then we all are time travelers traversing the Time Stream flowing from event to the other event. But where do our minds wander to the most? We think the most about either the past or the future. Many spiritual practices have lessons to bring the mind to the present. Being in the present, living our lives in the moment keeps us focused on what is in front of us to do naturally. The past is gone and the future has not happened. We can learn from the past and prepare for the future but we live in the present. If we stand on tip-toe with our legs spread out it is difficult to stand. This idea applies to our discussion of time – if we have a foot in the past and a foot in the future we are not standing in the present. So the question rises, what is the present? The Present is the immediate perceptual moment or event between the past and future – the “right now”.

The Atom (Ray Palmer)
First Appearance: "Birth of The Atom" Showcase, #34 (October 1961), DC Comics

Creators: Gardner Fox (writer) Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson (art)

* “The Gold Hunters of ‘49”, The Atom, #12, May 1964