On Being Present

 

On Being Present

            In these days of great busy-ness and many distractions, it is easy to become bewildered, lose our focus and be anything but what is often called…”present.”   In other words, our awareness, our attention, our mindfulness can be somewhere else… not accessible to us at the moment.  Our bodies may be on hand, but the rest of us is elsewhere. There is nothing particularly awful about this, but it does mean that the wisdoms and graciousness that we might bring to a circumstance may not be momentarily available to us, and their absences may deny us an instance that needs our healing skills.

We always have the opportunity...           

 Whether we know it or not, we are always necessary to wherever we find ourselves.  We always have the opportunity to bring our love, our peace, our joyous healing wherever we go… unless we are not present to the moment.  Of course, of course we will be again.  We will be gathered together; we will be equal to the healing spot… but maybe not now.

What our "present-ness" means...          

 Maybe we should consider what our “present-ness” means.  Is it important enough for us to practice inherent clarity in our thinking so that we can count on ourselves when a need arises?  Are we really aware of the essential gifts that we carry with us, and do we trust ourselves to know how to use them?  Hmmmm…… perhaps this is worth thinking about… in a very present fashion.

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Favorite Things

 

            Years ago a popular song was written entitled “My Favorite Things,” which enumerated several favorites, such as rainbows, tasty food dishes, gifts, etc.  It was circulated enough to encourage many of us to  bring up several personal favorites, some of which turned out to include many mundane items, like certain songs, games, clothing… all sorts of seemingly non-exciting things.   Many of them, as I said, reminded us of some ordinary belongings.  Perhaps this was no real surprise since we have come to realize that it is a good idea to turn our minds to the impactful parts of ourselves.

 

A Few life affecting situations...            

Every day we are personally creating the elements of our lives, some of which become groundbreaking and others much less attention getting… and this is the way our lives usually proceed.  There are a few, life-affecting situations which occur to change everything, but mostly there are the ordinary items and movements which move the days along.

Value it all...            

It is wise to value it all, to thrill at what excites and stimulates us and to learn from the ordinary and the difficult, for, as we know, our lives will contain some of each.  If we value only the beautiful and pleasant and toss away the sad and sorrowful, we may be turning away from something immensely important to us, something that may not return in quite the same way again.

 

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Stepping Out

 

Stepping Out

            I think that, by now, we have all discovered that there are many ways to “step out.”  We can, of course, step out by simply going outdoors and entering into physical activity.  Then there is something that is much more pervasive which involves opening our minds to new kinds of thoughts and ideas.  Frankly, this “stepping out” involves much more risk than just moving our feet because, as we know, when the mind gets actively curious the sky’s the limit!

A risk-taking mind set...         

 To my way of thinking, we need a risk-taking mind set to be able to think past the ordinary, daily demands made upon us.  Beyond our daily obligations, there is always a set of adventures that are ours if we are inclined to a little investigation.  If we will risk being made uncomfortable by looking into new and unfamiliar areas, we will always find an unknown… and perhaps several…that await us.  I think we all know that nothing stops what we do not know from entering into our lives at any moment.

Welcome the unexplored...           

Perhaps it is better that we welcome the unexplored into our lives as a personal acceptance since they are so prone to show up anyway!  As stepping out in thought becomes more easily available to us, we will almost automatically become more curious in our explorations… and how wonderful is that!

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The Quiet Mind

 

The Quiet Mind

            There is much, much to be said for encouraging a quiet state of mind.  For one thing, there is the availability of large amounts of clear thinking when the mind is not surging with troubled, upsetting ideas which discourage rationality and make welcome order unavailable.  For some, the mind jumbled with divisive thoughts can hardly provide the calm arena for productive thinking.  We all know that there are many reasons for keeping our minds available to us through the use of reasoned, modulated thought.  If this be so, why, then, are we often careless enough to let our minds follow fragmented, excitable disorderly groups of ideas?  Is it too much trouble to “mind our minds” so that we have greater control over our cerebral activities?

Calming exercises...          

 Isn’t it worth it to put our minds in order at the beginnings of each day so that we can begin the day in a good place for mental direction?  Perhaps a few calming exercises each morning would give us a great start in controlling our thought patterns as we enter daily activities.  There will be many distractions that come along in the course of each 24 hours, enough that we can use a quiet spot to which we can return for peaceful reflection and order.  We would do ourselves a favor, then, by establishing a harmonious place of peace, to which we can return for renewal and refreshment.

 

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