You Can Get There From Here

Last Monday, I got a clear glimpse of the way I derail my own well being.   The revelation was at once disturbing and enlightening.

It was a particularly busy week, with a host of details and tasks that kept me humming and running all the way through Sunday afternoon.  I was looking forward to Monday, a day set apart from the busyness of life, and an opportunity to enjoy leisure activities.  I have an unfinished woodworking  project in our garage that continually beckons hands and tools to shape its final form. Throughout the work week, I give it sidewards glances with the thought that when time permits I'll be at it again.

So it was last Monday morning I was immersed in this enjoyable project when I realized that I needed some additional screws and fasteners in order to continue.  Though subtle, there arose in me a mild irritation. Nothing significant really but I didn't really deal with it. I just got in the car and began driving to a local hardware store.  As I came to stop at a traffic signal a block from the store, the feeling hit me again.  Maybe because I was slightly more aware of my internal experience than normal, I noticed that my body was slightly tense.  I thought how odd, that I would be feeling tense on my day off doing what I enjoy. I asked myself why I was feeling this uptightness. The answer came with a realization that I was ever-so-subtly contracting myself in resistance to the minor inconvenience of an interruption of a desirable activity. I was holding some resistance, suffused with mild resentment, generally refusing to accept my current situation.  

I was struck by the irony. While sitting in traffic I found myself in violation of a failure to yield. I paid the price for this mental infraction. Failure to yield to life will be penalized with inner conflict. Even mild opposition to the present moment boots us offline. In that realization I could see that I do this many moments throughout the day.  I suspect that many of us  hold ourselves in a nearly constant state of resistance. Resistance is a form of protection or defense against anything that is even slightly disagreeable. in my case,  I wanted to be back in my garage working on the project, not driving to the store!  How petty, how minor. Not really a problem you say? Exactly, but I made it a problem by refusing to be with the "new reality." As soon as I saw what I was doing, I yielded, throttled back my resistance, and brought my full self back into the present moment. From a state of embrace, I could allow my full appreciation for life to enfold and dissolve the irritation.  The good feelings returned. I discovered that I could take a detour from my preferences, without derailing Presence.

Presence is full awareness of our Being; our divine essence experienced through the portal of the present moment. The awareness of Presence will bring us back into the fold of equanimity for all manner of life's distractions. Small or great, for there are no levels of difficulty in the healing power of Presence. Presence is closer than hands or feet, more near than our breath. And that is the very irony of our default behavior which sends us backwards and forwards, hither and yon to find the place that is imminently close. Never mind that the past is gone, and we can't change it, and the future hasn't taken place, we nonetheless seek to dwell in those imagined places in mind, rather than occupying the only moment we do occupy - the moment that is now.

When we call off the search, stop resisting with mind and body, and bring our whole being into the fold of the present moment, we are back in the abode of wholeness and peace - even when life derails our plans. This is good news - we can get there from here. 

You and I are here for a reason. The reason is, to Be here. Being here is the clarion call of infinite Presence calling us back to life, to wholeness, to peace and harmonious relationship with all that is. The present moment is the portal to the life we have been seeking over there, someday and somewhere. That life has arrived. It is with us when we are getting what we want, and it is with us when we aren't getting what we want. But if we stay present with whatever arises, we will discover that Life is what we want...and it'll be there for us.