One look in your eyes and there I see

So when I think of ‘here and now’ immediately the Luther Vandross song pops in my head. A love song professing his undying love and actually the way it’s phrased he implies that he apparently knows he is in it to win it, making promises that he will love faithfully until who knows when. I guess she might have been one lucky gal, and hopefully he was able to keep his promise until he passed away. 

But we’re not talking about the future, and not really a love song. I don’t think about the future much. I mean yes, we have future plans and goals, but I’m not living in that. I’m living in the present, what is going on right here and now. Putting to much effort into whatever could happen, can be harmful. It’s actually said that it causes anxiety and unwanted stress. I already have high blood pressure, so why bother to mess with that?

To keep ourselves present, isn’t really too difficult, but for myself, it was really something I didn’t even realize wasn’t happening. I know I have mentioned this in several different areas...last year at this time I was going with the flow, but it was really taking me off course. It was leading me down a path of worries- how many classes am I going to teach this week? Will I have enough gas to get to XYZ? Will I have time to get gas before I get there? How many students are signed up? How am I going to have time to make dinner before I leave? What am I making for dinner? Just all these little things added up left me ungrounded, tired and stressed. I’m sure you also heard this from MANY people and it definitely applies to me- the pandemic forced me to slow down, way down! Not having these trivial things to worry about showed me what it was like to be in the present. It allowed me to really sit back and smell the roses. It made me sit with discomfort sometimes, emotions I didn’t like, but it cultivated awareness. 

Here and now isn’t just about about the breath, it’s actually about life. The next time you start to notice yourself drifting away from life (as I did), take a moment of pause, give the roses a smell, kiss your cat, or maybe just feel every sensation of your foot as it takes a step.