“The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
______________
Another top tip from this Ishayas’ Ascension teacher’s retreat that I’m on …
Fully enjoy whatever the moment has for you.
This moment is life, and so you might as well choose to enjoy it.
A simple thing, enjoyment. Right?
However!
We’re very good at anticipating future enjoyment, i.e. the weekend, the holiday, the new restaurant/shoes/shirt/gadget/Amazon purchase arriving – you name it.
There’s so much cool stuff coming, and on one level it feels wonderful to think about how much better the future will be.
But we’ve gotten so good at anticipating, we get into this loop of needing the new and different to give us a boost.
Our lives become filled with waiting … waiting and anticipating that next thing, and the next thing, and so we lose the ability to be content in the reality that is right in front of us.
Now, in all its glorious simplicity, can seem boring in relation to what we think the next great thing will make us feel.
But we never actually appreciate the beauty of now because we never truly arrive to it; we never immerse ourselves in it because we’re always somewhere else, looking forward to some ideal future moment.
We skim over here and now so quickly we don’t know what is here.
And that’s a shame – it means life is lived in the future, and never in the one place life actually is:
Here and now.
So, the first part of the equation:
Arrive.
When you fully arrive to now … you have a choice.
Do you decide to enjoy what is here; or not?
I hope it’s obvious that you want to choose to enjoy this … whatever it may contain.
Your choice makes the foundation for your life. It’s not what happens to you, but how you respond to it that makes a life, first of all.
Therefore:
Be present and embrace what you find fully and completely and without reservation.
“Impossible!” you may think. “There are some things that simply cannot be enjoyed.”
While this is no easy task, it is a rewarding task:
You can always appreciate something about any given moment. Anything.
That fact is we are always judging – appreciating or condemning.
Even in hard and confusing times, you can choose between these two options:
Is this happening to you, or for you?
You might as well make your appreciation of now a stronger habit than the condemnation of it … right?
And from that appreciation can only come enjoyment.
Maybe that’s simple acceptance, or easy contentment, maybe it’s wild approval and bliss …
We don’t get to decide the end emotion – but appreciation is certainly the ground in which all goodness grows.
Hence life becomes extremely simple.
Don’t wait,
Make life about now,
Enjoy what is here.
Job done.
Keep it that simple.
Play with that and we’ll talk more next week.
Have fun and go well!
Arjuna