Happy New Year!
We’re halfway through our 12 days of Illumination and I’m so happy we decided to take this journey together. Already I find myself more open, more present to my thoughts and emotions (and thus less vulnerable to letting them take me somewhere without my awareness!) That’s one of the gifts of the holy days, if we approach them mindfully. They call us into a deeper level of awareness.
Yesterday we were preparing for some friends to come over to ring in the New Year with us. Our daughter Bridget was helping me make a 7 layer dip. She loves to cook and often helps me in the kitchen. Suddenly I was overwhelmed with a feeling of joy and gratitude for her and for her life. I gave her a big hug (Bridget may be the world’s best hugger) and as I held her in my arms I felt tears coming. David looked over his shoulder and caught my eye as he wiped down the counter. “Are you ok?” he asked. “Yes,” I told him, “I’m actually doing really well.”
Joy is not an emotion. It is a state of being that bubbles up without effort when we regularly bring our awareness back to the moment and choose, over and over again, to be present to what is. You might even experience it during some of your most painful moments. It is a natural response to being in the presence of the Presence. When we bring our full awareness into any given moment, we touch the Timeless.
That’s why when I noticed my thoughts today slipping into Monday and thinking “I’m going to be so busy next week! I have two articles to write and I need to send my CV off to that organization that is considering me to speak, I have to get talking points to Great Day St. Louis, there’s the final edit of my book and the freelance writing assignments…” I stopped.
I decided I want to bring this feeling of timelessness and presence with me into next week. And yet, paradoxically, planning to be present doesn’t work. I can’t really make a resolution to be more alive. I can only choose to be more alive in each moment, as it comes. As soon as I try to hold on to the exquisite joy that arises from mindfulness, it slips away.
I can only find The Presence in the present.
So, Happy New Year, my friend on the journey. I’m wishing you many moments of presence.
Peace of this moment to you,
Kimberly Schneider
The Manifestation Maven