The Call To Presence

With the news around the world being dominated by the new Covid variant I’ve been drawn to share what I see around presence…

Never in my life has there been such a call to presence as now.

With news channels screaming out the fearful message of Omicrom I find myself easily drawn into worry.

I’m certain I’m not alone.

But what if Omicrom is here to call us more deeply into living from presence? What if it’s an invitation for us to turn away from the noisy recesses of our minds and look to what is true right here, right now. In this moment.

As I write this there is a robin visiting my garden. Hopping, flittering, pecking, eating; being lived by life itself. Guided in every moment to know where to obtain food, where to find shelter and what dangers to fly away from.

It doesn’t seem to me that he is doing anything other than following that knowing; the instructions built into him when he was created.

He isn’t distracted by thoughts of what has been, or what might be. He is just here.

So what happens to us humans? Why don’t we live like the robin?

Thoughts

It seems to me that we live most of our lives in the stories of our minds. Created out of the incredible gift of thought that we’ve not learnt how to use ‘properly’.

Innocently we use the gift of thought against ourselves. We create stories about what might happen and we live in the fear of those stories.

So what’s the alternative?

The alternative is to remain alert; to notice when you’re getting drawn into stories and to bring yourself back to the present moment; to the feel of the seat beneath your legs, the ground beneath your feet, the laptop keys under the fingers.

Because in that place we are OK.

In that place, there is just experience. Whether the experience is of pain or peace makes no difference when the chattering of the mind is not present to judge it.

It’s just experience, unfolding. In this moment. And in this one. And this one…

For me, the call to remain present is clear.

Because in that presence we know what to do; we find the answers to our problems, or the problems no longer look like they once did. We raise in our level of consciousness and see that everything is just as it should be. The divine perfection behind life.

We see that in every moment we are like the robin, powered by the same intelligence as he.

So will you join me in presence?

Will you accept the invitation that this new variant provides to seep into, and be guided by, the intelligence of life?

If you want to read more about the present moment then I’ve written about the healing effect of the present moment here. I’ve also written about what nature can teach us about the present moment here.