Aug 30, 2012

Savoring the Moment

"Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul." Thomas Merton

I have had a tendency in life to not be fully in the moment; waiting for my life to begin in a future moment that might some how be more exciting.  Or, I find sometimes that I have a list of to-do's going on in my mind rather than being present in the moment.  Many admired thinkers have advised us to savor the current moment.  Thomas Merton puts it a bit differently when he tells us that each moment and each event plants something in the soul of a person.  Perhaps the moment or event is more firmly planted when one is actually present to experience the moment.  Dr. Joan Borysenko has written that one task of the human journey is to "tame the monkey mind", the mind that jumps from subject to subject, swinging from here to there, always on the move, adrift.   Perhaps she is saying the same thing:  that to be a fully functioning human we need to train our minds to be quiet, receptive, alert.  Meditation helps in this practice, as does taking action steps to alleviate anxiety.  Let us consider stopping several times and day and noticing what is actually occurring in this moment; in this event.  We can build a habit of being more present. 

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