I’ve been reading about Buddhism in the Western world and have been particularly intrigued by the concept of presence. Naturally we’ve all been told to be present, but usually we only think of presence in the physical sense, forgetting to bring our minds with us.
I’ve been a victim of this lately. While physically present my mind is either racing ahead, contemplating my to-do list, or lagging behind reassessing some previous event. My personal challenge is to truly be in the moment, breathe it, appreciate it, and just be alive!
While I’ve been mostly failing, I did have the opportunity to forget about life and work two weekends ago on a camping trip in Big Sur. Mike, Nikkie, Linus, Bella and I hiked some and mostly enjoyed the fine art of camp cooking. Bella turned out to be a fabulous hiker, making it over 1.5 hours on her own four paws (Nikkie carried her back most of the way).
Finding that presence is easy when withdrawn from my day-to-day life, but my challenge is to find it in the body of every day and experience. Let the journey continue.
You do sound busy, busy but some of it at least sounds
fun. I love all the photos so keep them coming! We
just returned from our ‘color tour’ in southern IN and
had great time. It is a dreary day here and raining.
Now it is nap time and day is just great for it. I liked
pumpkin soup and love the pie. Hope you had great time.
love you both
Comment by Gram — October 22, 2006 @ 11:34 am