One of the lessons I have been working on in my life for quite some time now is being present in each moment. It doesn’t mean ignoring what has come before or letting go of dreams about what might yet be, but it does mean seeking to avoid allowing either past or future to prevent me from fully participating in the only moment I have available to me, which is the eternal NOW. If I am stewing over something that happened yesterday, or worrying about what might happen tomorrow, then I am not really able to be present to the possibilities which are right in front of me now. If I want to encounter God’s Sacred Presence, now is the only moment when that can happen. These past few months, when so many of life’s routines have been upended and warped beyond recognition, the importance of this lesson has become clearer than ever before. We’ve never really been in control of very much (if anything at all), but we have had the illusion of control. In the upheaval and uncertainty of our current circumstances, even the illusion has been shattered. The only thing I can really do is to show up, as fully and authentically as I can manage, and open myself honestly to this moment in which I find myself. Whenever I manage to actually do this, however imperfectly, I find it to be a profoundly powerful experience. I don’t have to look for beauty, I simply begin to recognize that I am immersed in it. I don’t have to seek peace, I simply notice that I am experiencing it. I don’t have to search for God, I simply become aware that God is (and always has been) present. Whatever is going on around me and within me, whether it be the Covid-19 crisis, or the political and social strife that seems so all-encompassing, or the garden variety stresses which arise in the course of living my life, I discover that I am better equipped to face them because I am no longer consumed by them. At the end of the day, or at the end of all my days, it will not be the mistakes of yesterday or the worries about tomorrow that will matter. What I will remember and be grateful for will be the moments when I have managed to be fully present. That is where the awe and wonder are to be found. That is where Sacred Presence is to be encountered. That is how I want to live – fully alive – fully present – now – always NOW!
