Anne Lamott says, “My mind is like a bad neighborhood—I try not to go there alone.” But our minds are also rather like grammar school playgrounds—it’s not wise to leave the kids unattended. Seeing both of these metaphors as shrewd and potentially helpful invites us to cultivate them both. Go often to the playground and regularly to the bad neighborhood—but never go alone. Vaya con Dios, go with God, with Presence—whether our idea of Presence is “He walks with me and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own.” Or our idea of Presence is “Being Itself.” Or our idea of Presence is the quality of mindful awareness we cultivate and do our best to bring into any moment—focused, non-judging, kind, and curious. Go often. Vaya con Dios.
Below are 3 rich reflections about Presence.
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With every breath I fill with God. And my life is a
table where I offer God to the world.
–Thomas Aquinas
"There is need for awareness that the
mountains and rivers and all living things, the sky and its sun and moon and
clouds all constitute a healing, sustaining sacred presence for humans which we
need as much for our psychic integrity as for our physical nourishment. This
presence, whether experienced as Allah, as Atman, as Sunyata, or as the
Buddha-nature or as Bodhisattva; whether as Tao or as the One or as the Divine
Feminine, is the atmosphere in which humans breathe deepest and without which
we eventually suffocate." --Thomas
Berry
Flickering
Mind
Lord, not you,
it is I who am absent....
I elude your presence.... Not for one second
will my self hold still, but wanders anywhere,
everywhere it can turn. Not you,
it is I who am absent.
You are the stream, the fish, the light, the
pulsing shadow,
you the unchanging presence, in whom all
moves and changes.
How can I focus my flickering, perceive at the
fountain's heart
the sapphire I know is there? --Denise Levertov
