I wonder right now how much of our lives are lived waiting for the next moment–in anticipation of something else. I just sipped my coffee, and I realized as the taste hit my tongue along with the tender reaction against the hot fluid that for the most part, these sips are taken automatically–rushing to do the next thing. It’s hardly even noticed because your mind is focused on whatever you are very briefly interrupting by picking up the coffee cup or whatever you will be doing as soon as you set it down.
I just took another sip, and I intentionally slowed down, feeling the heat from the coffee rising up against my face, looking down and seeing my reflection in the coffee: my eyes and nose rippling in the dark. How little are we present to our lives?
You might say that you show up all the time, but most any examples you would give would be the handful of moments that you look forward to–your escape from all the things you don’t want to be present for. It’s easy to show up for things you like. In fact, most people try to handle their lives by trying to make it all something they like, but this doesn’t save them from illness, old age, loss, and death. You’re going to be in moments you don’t want to be in–traffic jams, public restrooms, cat barf, and flubbed orders at restaurants… heartbreak, false friends, body aches, and self-righteous dunces.
It’s hard to show up for the moments you don’t like
The question: Can you show up to all these moments too? Can you be present to all the things you don’t like? Can you sit with the world as it is with equanimity? Can you let this grow into the tender openness of compassion for all? I dare you to try.
May this help you develop mindful presence in all of life’s situations.
Gassho!
On the Way 
May 19, 2015 @ 00:24:25
Sometimes Mindfulness in all situations is too much to take for those times when one is experiencing something terrible. Our ability to forget or to tune out and ‘disconnect’ is a survival trait.
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May 19, 2015 @ 00:37:16
That’s a good point, Brandon, and we’re all at different levels of being able to do so. However, studies show that association is just as powerful if not more so as a means of coping as dissociation. It may seem counter-intuitive, but if you’re in great pain, staying focused on it can reduce it just as well as tuning out from it. Of course, I’m not moralistically saying that people are wrong, bad, or at fault for tuning out or not being able to tune in. This is more of a call to notice and a challenge to progress toward more mindfulness; it’s a process, and I realize that. I’m by no means perfect at it!
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May 19, 2015 @ 00:50:20
*smiles* If you were, you couldn’t tell us anything about how you got there. The Way is a different road for everyone, and until they are ready, there is no point in trying to explain.
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May 19, 2015 @ 09:17:38
Thank you, this was a much needed message right now for me.
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May 19, 2015 @ 15:47:11
No, thank you, holly. It’s always wonderful to hear that these posts were needed. If I get any kind of indication that a post helped others in some way, I consider it a great success. I’m glad that this said the words that you needed to hear.
Gassho!
Z
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May 20, 2015 @ 00:19:28
It was….perfect timing in my life at this very moment. a much needed wake up call. Waiting is such a waste of time!!
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