I’m always trying to figure out how everything is connected, and what we can break things down into. What are the “building blocks” of existence, of time and space, of being human, of being conscience, of being “good”, of “being”. I read a lot of books on all kinds of topics and meditate and cook and rinse and repeat and try to listen more than I talk. What is “it”? What is the indistinguishable? What rudimentary or basic “things” or actions or states can make everything-ish more understandable, tolerable, beautiful? The more and more I work on this the more and more I return to presence and its yang partner of non-presence.
What is disease? What is despair? What is hatred or genocide or unsustainable debt levels? What is the kink in my lower back? They are non-presence. They are future or past. They are worry and regret. I find that the more that I try to really just sit and be present and maybe focus on my breath or water lapping on the shore or the lovely suggestive laughs of the ducks bobbing up and down or just “Love” the more it all just gets better and makes sense. Not that it can be communicated or that really it needs to be or maybe really even should (risky word). Go ahead! Try it! We can afford it and it likely is non-fattening though it may be habit forming.
I would Love to be able to wave a magic wand and just convince all the people of the world to try to be present for one day, one minute. I really think that if we could all be brave enough to put down our fears and to-do lists and grievances and distractions and even plans and memories we would be really here and really alive and really happy. I think it would be felt like a peaceful earthquake rippling and rumbling around the world not unlike the laughing ducks. It might be enough of a real experience for all of us or at least enough (think herd-immunity!) to want to do this again and again. We might find that everything gets more better-ish or at least we would be more at peace with whatever is. I really think that the only standing between us and nirvana or peace or Christmas morning is just our hesitancy or inexperience with being present.
Of course, there is real famine and disease and poverty and war and all kinds of other maladies all around us. It is even in many of our homes, especially as this pandemic stretches on and on. That is why, for those of us not encumbered by so many challenges, those of us with a roof over our heads and food in our belly, with security and Love, with functioning immune systems and enough inner peace to be able to begin this unknown journey into ourselves, into now, we need to do this. We need to do this for ourselves, and for those for which this is such a challenge right now. It will make it easier for all of us. It will help congress function and the air to stay clean. It will slowly lift people out of misery and house the homeless. Of course, we need to do so much more as well. Of course, we can and want to do and be so much more. But it all begins with just stopping, stopping our minds and our fingers and sitting and being us. Being now. Breathing, walking and feeling the ground support and meet us for each and every step. Wash the dishes mindfully. Feel the comforting warmth and the beautiful transparency of water. I breathe in Love, I breath out fear. I breath in Love. I breath in Love. I breathe. I breathe. Breathe. Be.
