The Gift of Presence

Lately I am pondering how present I am (or not).  And how present others are (or not).  It seems to me that we are all multi-tasking and not really doing any one thing very well.  Example: today I was driving my child to pre-school while also checking my e-mail on my iPhone, texting on my iPhone, talking to my child and thinking about where I was going after I dropped my child off.  In a word: unsafe.

Yesterday, I showed up at a scheduled appointment.  The woman I was meeting was very busy.  She clearly had no time for me although she was the one who arranged the meeting.  Don’t get me wrong: I understood.  I mean she had contractors running around her house, an employee who showed up, things buzzing and an animal roaming around.  I’ve been there.  I actually had sympathy or compassion for her.  I felt her pain of being distracted by the outside world.  So I sat there as she attended to her flurry of activity and I noticed how I was the one who was actually sitting there, present, noticing…

My next meeting, which followed that one, was completely the opposite.  I showed up running a tad bit late sort of in a rush.  The three people I was meeting sat there, at the table, appearing calm, present and completely free of distraction.  Their attention was on the present moment.  They were free from any signs of anxiety, stress.  In turn, I was the one who ran in, in sort of a manic, hurried state and completely in my head.  They were perfectly still, relaxed.

As I ponder this state of presence…I realize that I want more of it.  I want to be more present.  I want to do one thing at a time.  Enough of the working and talking and eating and moving and all of it-simultaneously.  I’ve heard it said over and over again by the wise sages, “Whatever we put our attention on, grows.”  So what does it mean if we are putting our attention on nothing and everything at the same time?  We get more of nothing and everything.

So for today, my goal is to slow down, breathe, and put my attention on the present moment and what is happening in it.  Not on yesterday, tomorrow, the next task or the next thing on the to-do list.

The gift of presence is truly an amazing gift.  That’s why it’s called the present.