“Forever is composed of nows.”
~ Emily Dickinson
“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.”
~Buddha
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”
~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Two more weeks in this ‘present moment!’ In the past few weeks I have had great company with family and friends and the opportunities to stay present abound. Regardless of how much I practice I often find myself in a moment and missing some of the important parts. However, yesterday as I made my way into the water for a dip I was very present with the water and its meandering around the curves and creases of my body! It wrapped its arms around me like an old friend and brought back a cascade of childhood memories. However, the teaching, I did not need to stay in the memories to enjoy the present. The joy of the memories stayed and attached to the new experience of the moment.
This has been a summer to morn the past and to trust the wisdom of present moments and to understand that present moments will bring their joy to our future if we just allow them to happen. However, staying present is more difficult than so simply expressed. And no matter how many times we hear, feel or allow the teachings, or how much we believe what we are taught and how much we know it all to be true it is an ongoing challenge to stay in the now.
How easy it is to judge ourselves when we ‘fall of the path!’ I would suggest that our judgment of ourselves is a way to ignore our success! I suggest that the lessons we allow and the teachings we acknowledge are indeed a present moment of compassion for ourselves.
Written by Deborah Lavender, BMG Senior Consultant
Photo Copyright: Gajus, 123RF
