Embracing Now & Loving What Is

Photo taken from a coffeeshop window bar, Edinburgh, Scotland (2021). Copyright SJPhotography.

Embracing Now & Loving What Is

Have you ever noticed that the mind is always looking for another moment? “I’ll be happy when…” is a favorite teaser thought that the mind is always yearning for. Pulling us to seek somewhere else, or find the truth, peace, or the love we long for in someone else. The mind works to convince us that what we seek is all “out there” in the next moment.

However, the truth lies in the here and now. There is no other life, no other love, no other peace, and no other time than Now. This moment is not a fleeting space pinched between the past and future. It is the only place where everything is happening – where truth, love, and peace can be found. When we travel into thoughts of the past or future, we are drifting into worlds that are lifeless memories of what is dead and gone or projections of what will never arrive. Our buy-in of the past and future are so habituated that we hold onto old grievances, failures, fears of lack or things that did not go as we wanted them to and hatch plans to fix them, change outcomes or do something drastic in the future that will change our experience. We find ourselves living completely in our memories and projections. When you notice the 1-dimensional nature of the past and the future, and that nothing you try will change or alter anything you begin to notice how much energy and endless thought it takes to live in the seeking of “then” or “when.” You begin to notice how often you are pulled into anxiety about the dead past and endless worry over a never-arriving future.

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.

_Eckhart Tolle, “The Power of Now: A Guide To Spiritual Enlightenment”

The wonderful thing about presence or mindfulness is that you can start at any time and begin this practice wherever you are. Even now, as you’re reading or listening to this podcast notice everything you can about this moment. Every subtle and nuanced happening of what is arising within you and around you right now. The warmth and subtle tastes of a sip of tea, music playing softly in the background, the coolness of the floor on your feet, the symphony of noises coming from outside to meet you inside, the disarray of items on your desk, or the sweet nuzzle and look of love from your cat or dog.

Merge your being, your noticing, and your awareness as one with all that is here Now. Become curious, excited, and infatuated with This – just This – everything about this moment. Find gratitude in what is arising in this moment as part of your practice to love what is. The beautiful thing about practicing mindfulness is that the more you do it the more you find that this moment holds everything you need, and offers you the peace, stillness, respite, and love that you seek out in the world, in everything external to you, or in the thoughts and dreams of past and future. When you deepen this pathway to being in the moment it becomes the place you long for when the day is long, challenging, scary, or overwhelming. This place of Now becomes the loving sanctuary you have been seeking and looking for outside of yourself or in another moment. The present is truly a gift created just for you sweet one.

The poet, Dorothy Hunt writes on loving what is:

In this choiceless

never-ending

flow

of life,

there is an infinite array

of choices.

One alone

brings happiness –

to love

what is.

_Dorothy Hunt, “Only This!”