Being so present that a moment is a microcosm of eternity. It is timeless. I am absorbed in it and absorbing it. I am transparent enough that I am invisible and the other sees life deeper, not because of me, rather, because I give up being fake and be real. It’s like seeing a painting or work of art that is authentic and knowing the Artist worked on this. And it is listening to another not only so that the other knows he/she is heard, but they felt heard as well. It is a simple smile to another who is too busy, too grieving, to upset to notice anything else because of the chaos of their internal noise, and then they look and experience a smile from someone who is present. Who is a present. Wholehearted, as has been so wonderfully described by so many already, is being ‘charged with the grandeur’ of life living me now.

I have not had to experience your pain and I extend my empathy. I work with men who are in recovery and treatment for addictions. For them, in my experience, greeting each day, each minute as new is essential. They have lived in the constricting habit of doing only one thing: get high. They have lived a slow death. Attempting to undo that constriction, of helping them to breathe again, is their struggle, their suffering. They carry heavy burdens of guilt, shame, fear, and sadness. Yes, they have hurt those very close to them: mothers, wives, children, friends. And for those who have been hurt, it is watching hell; it is watching a burning bush consuming a loved one. The hurt ones understand too well that first step of the 12-Step: I am out of control. And yet, in my experience, for those who are addicted they need to see that someone also believes life can be new again. It is tiring for the hurt loved ones. Crucifying. Yet, we must find some ray of hope to greet each day as new, if not for them then absolutely for ourselves. Tricia, I cannot ease the hurt. And I’m sorry. But do know you are not alone. And that you come to his exercise shows deep within you is that burning bush asking you to shed the worn and weary soles of the painful journey you have walked, not in some illusionary make-believe unreality. NO! The same reality of a God who plants a small trillium or rose hip in some untraveled path in some distant wood where no one may ever see simply because God creates each minute new. It is our faith in unknowing yet knowing God is. This won’t necessarily ease any pain. But I hope it allows you a moment, a minute, that someone else has made new because he heard your plea. My prayers, that is my trust in God, is with you tonight.