Be Here Now, Contd.

I wrote “Be Here Now”  (6/7/10) in an earnest attempt at speaking to the convoluted coping mechanisms that we attempt to manage our feelings.  Questions force me to further clarify: any time we try to force-stop an experience, for whatever reason, we force-stop all experiences.  My belief is that stopping the fully developed experience of pain –  ultimately stops the fully developed experience of joy.  Stopped experiences clog everything – not just the experience we want to stop.

My point about joy, is that we never wish to stop joy and so we dive fully into this experience with abandon – that is why joy occurs so quickly in comparison to pain.  That does not mean that joy fully experienced eludes us.  Indeed, if we are capable of “being here now” nothing could be further from the truth… Joy envelopes us, when the experience is available.  The experience can only be fully available if we can be present in the moment, without the shadow of our pain lingering over us or with us.

Truly, that is the point about being here now, being fully present for whatever moment that comes upon us.  It is a child-like state of being.  Recently, my granddaughter had her awards ceremony for first graders.  It was a highly anticipated occasion, as my granddaughter had worked all year to be the best.  She had earned awards for good behavior and for good grades.  The ceremony was to take place at 9:00 a.m. and you can imagine for a 7 year old, getting ready for the ceremony, waiting in line, sitting in the auditorium, waiting for the rest of the school and sitting in the auditorium – lots of feelings boiled to the surface.  Like a cadre of highly trained and dedicated parents we swooped down on her en masse: her father, her mother, her grandmother and her uncle.  She began weeping  earnestly, so deep was her fear of being abandoned to the busy-ness of our lives.  As she was comforted, her joy at our attention and presence overcame her.  Happiness swept over her tear-stained face quickly, to replace all of the fear that had preceded it.  Throughout the ceremony, she laughed and waved at us and giggled.  Such is the power of being here now – all that is in the moment must be experienced so that the moment can fully develop into all that is joyful and beautiful about life.  These moments can linger, all of them, where ever they come from, they carry us or thwart us in the next moment.  It is our choice.

And as my granddaughter would say “trust me”:  fully experiencing what is here now, being in the moment, no matter what the moment is offering to us, is a way of being – that fully enriches life now.