Right Here Right Now

You know that person in your community that you’ve always been aware of but never gotten to know? At least a dozen people you know know them, and like them. You hear their name all the time. But something in you just feels kind of apathetic, uninterested, in getting to know this person. You kinda feel like, “yeah, I’ll stay over here on this side of the room, and you stay over there.” Just no click.
 
For about fifteen years, as I hung out in personal growth circles – in the reading, the thinking, the occasional workshop, the practices – and that was my relationship to the concept of “living the in the present.” Everyone was talking about it. It came up all the time. But I wasn’t drawn to it. I was drawn to concepts like transformation, love, freedom, joy. The plain old present moment? Blah.
 
About a year ago, I started writing about the present moment. I befriended the concept. I began to see how I was limited by my brain’s compulsion to be running all over the place, taking me into the future and the past and nine hundred random hypotheticals all the time. I got the value of it. Kind of.
 
Our journeys of personal growth unfold with their own rhythm and timeline, and what’s happening in mine now is a calling to go deeper into mindfullness, meditation, into familiarity with the present moment. What seemed boring now seems rich. What seemed icky now has a magnetic pull. I’m seeing in a whole new way what the simplicity of reality in the present moment offers us, and how it is a key to so much. I’ll be writing about this much more.
 
What is evolving naturally in your journey right now? What are you feeling called to? What’s shifting?
 
I want to direct your attention to two related guests posts, which I’m behind on sharing with you. (There is so much pressure in the blogging world to do everything immediately, and I’m not always able to keep up!)
 
Anyway, on this topic, of being with what is, please see my recent guest post Leaving Ourselves at the beautiful blog Embody Grace. Gina is a fabulous writer and her blog is quite a resource. If you know that you reach for something – TV, email, twitter, food, shopping, etc – to avoid what’s happening in the present moment, this post is for you.
 
Yesterday, I had a guest post at 6 aliens, Ben Lumley’s personal growth blog. Ben is a remarkable guy with a tremendous passion for personal growth, and I’ve been totally delighted to get to know him. The post is about a phenomenon that most certainly is getting in your way in your life, from time to time or all the time. I call the phenomenon The Ego Detour, and you’ll want to read about it and get some tools for addressing it’s nasty effects.
 
By the way, I am home from paradise (thanks everyone who has been asking)! I’m actually taking off for trip #2 today, heading out to Boulder, Colorado for a couple days accompanying the husband on a business trip, and then to NYC, to frolic around with dear friends, soak up art (I LOVE ART!!) and generally bask in the overwhelming glory that is New York City.
 
That’s the scoop.
 
Sending you all wishes for a day in which you are relentlessly kind to yourself. Please?

Love,

Tara