Precious Present
“God speaks to every individual through what happens to them moment by moment. The events of each moment are stamped with the will of God... we find all that is necessary in the present moment.”—Jean Pierre de Caussade in Abandonment to Divine Providence (1921).
We wrote about Spencer Johnson’s famous book about living in the present, The Precious Present (in A Daily Spiritual Rx for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany). C. S. Lewis also writes that God speaks to us in the present, not in the past or future. Many mindfulness exercises are about getting into the present moment, living in the present moment. Other spiritual practices, such as walking the labyrinth, using the rosary, waiting in silence, and walking meditations, also lead us to the present moment by quieting the committee in our heads.
In his book Sadhana, Anthony de Mello teaches us that living in our body and not living out of our head keeps us grounded. Our bodies keep us in the present moment by grounding us to the earth. Our mind is always in the future or the past. Spending time in nature connects us to the present. The trees photosynthesize and transform the energy within us to perceive beauty. Beauty grounds us in the present. Playing with children keeps us in the present, for that is where children live. The child within us also lives and connects us to the precious present moment.
Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/