Presence found me when I was 17, and has gently (sometimes with a touch nudge) guided me since. With less and less "me" and much more Presence.
I often tell young folks like yourself - I'm 73, and I don't think it's too likely I'll make it to 106, but 20 years of healthy functioning seems pretty much in the cards (my Dad was totally mobile and sharp till around 95, and we have quite a few 90-ers in the recent family past as well)
So, I don't know your age, but I"ll pick one - say you're 33.
Now imagine you KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that on your 53rd birthday, you will go to sleep and not wake up. Very gentle.
How would that affect how you live right now?
Then think of the great French mystic, Jean Pierre de Caussaude who wrote of the present moment as a "sacrament," much as Meister Eckhart (who inspired Eckhart Tolle) told us to discover the timeless eternal in every moment of time, thus experiencing infinite fullness in each moment.
What is it then, to be - to be here, to be, here, now?
I"ll leave you with Jim Finley's working of a verse from the psalms;
Thanks so much for sharing, Don. I love the idea of experiencing infinite fullness in each moment.
I’m 35 (you were close!) and try my best to live from a place of reverence for the present moment. Sure is easy to lose track though and get swept up in the pace of life!
This is beautiful! If there is one thing I have learned in the last few years, it’s that choosing to live authentically is SO IMPORTANT.
Beautiful.
Presence found me when I was 17, and has gently (sometimes with a touch nudge) guided me since. With less and less "me" and much more Presence.
I often tell young folks like yourself - I'm 73, and I don't think it's too likely I'll make it to 106, but 20 years of healthy functioning seems pretty much in the cards (my Dad was totally mobile and sharp till around 95, and we have quite a few 90-ers in the recent family past as well)
So, I don't know your age, but I"ll pick one - say you're 33.
Now imagine you KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that on your 53rd birthday, you will go to sleep and not wake up. Very gentle.
How would that affect how you live right now?
Then think of the great French mystic, Jean Pierre de Caussaude who wrote of the present moment as a "sacrament," much as Meister Eckhart (who inspired Eckhart Tolle) told us to discover the timeless eternal in every moment of time, thus experiencing infinite fullness in each moment.
What is it then, to be - to be here, to be, here, now?
I"ll leave you with Jim Finley's working of a verse from the psalms;
Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I am
Be still and know
Be still
Be
Thanks so much for sharing, Don. I love the idea of experiencing infinite fullness in each moment.
I’m 35 (you were close!) and try my best to live from a place of reverence for the present moment. Sure is easy to lose track though and get swept up in the pace of life!
….. 35….. pausing to take that in. That was 1987 for me….. I’d say roughly it feels like about 8 lifetimes ago.
You have no idea how much you have in store, and yet how it can also feel like decades go by with the snap of a finger
Savor every moment