presence

today i am with the power of presence. what it offers, what it feels like, what it is.

so much energy is spent resourcing the past and planning for the future. in this, we miss the present moment which is all we ever have. it is all there is ever is. this moment: right here. right now.

when we can drop the trauma-induced patterns of getting hooked by past and future and be here, now we find that there is no such thing as past/present/future. it all folds into one.

the interaction between my mother and I is also an exchange between my grandmother and my mother. my father's prayer is also my grandfather's. the laughter at the old-too-cold asparagus casserole is also a moment of humor among the future ones. the forgiveness and compassion and love found in the gaze of my soon-to-be-ex-husband is a glance of the ages.

this, this is where we are changed. we are changed. we participate in life in such an open and available way that life transforms us.

all is here, in the present. there is no separation--no time and space, no conditions. when we occupy the moment, and it occupies us, that choice is so moving that it moves everything...the ripples cascading out and across dimensions beyond our imagination.

i'm grateful to know presence, to feel the immensity of love and power that is also available to us. Jesus called this the Kingdom of God and taught that it is not "out there" in the external world but within us. there is peace, here. abundance.

in recent days, the Lord's Prayer has taken ahold of me. after a lifetime of reciting this prayer without any resonance (and often, more of the opposite feeling), it's words have landed. i get it. the prayer that Jesus taught the disciples when they asked him how to pray, is now my prayer.

My Father, who art in Heaven.

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.

On earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day, our daily bread

And forgive us our trespasses

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil.

For thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory.

Amen.

i know it as a prayer of presence.

and i know presence to be the way of love, to be the medicine for these times.