Nothing Happened

by livewhatyouknow

“Seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world.”  –A Course In Miracles

Life IS and nothing happened.  Sometimes it seems like something either good or bad has happened and we swirl in the aftermath of either label we chose to put on it.  It really seems like something has happened; we’re quite sure of it.  What if it didn’t truly happen?  What if it is just our thoughts about it that make it seem like it happened?  Aren’t someone else’s thoughts about that same occurrence possibly quite different from ours?  In the after-current of seeming events, we often try to pull others into knowing what has happened by telling them our version of it and keeping the thing alive by continuously naming it and discussing how it feels and what may happen next.  We then add all sorts of projected future scenarios on top of the thing that may or may not have happened.  Our mind quickly begins living out future things that haven’t happened either.  It is all a messy emotional surge that isn’t good for our bodies, minds or souls.  It all takes us away from the only thing we can truly live…the moment we are actually in.

We get to choose how we see the world and everything in it.  Often, we barely see anything before us as we rush through familiar surroundings and assume our way through our days.  If we do encounter the unfamiliar, we label it right away and attached a bunch of thoughts to it.  It is so easy to spend our moments assuming we already know how things will go and labeling anything surprising.  Assuming and labeling isn’t Living, it’s viewing things through our skewed perception.  We can easily see our version of things, but there is so much we are missing by living this way.  We don’t want to view things, we want to Live them.  We can open our hearts to the exact moment we are in and feel more of the life and peace that surrounds us waiting for us to tap into it.  We can become open to the idea that it is just our thoughts about things keeping them alive.  We can let go of the suffering we cause ourselves and others by staying stuck in these thoughts.  We must practice letting the thoughts pass and opening up more stillness and silence to live how we are meant to…in peace.

Something I find quite comforting is the fact that there is ever only one answer to all of the questions we may have about the suffering we encounter or the journey to more peace…just come fully into the present moment…you can handle anything you encounter by fully experiencing it now.  Not the now in your mind with all the thoughts about it, but, the now that just is and brings peace.

I have heard Eckhart Tolle answer hundreds of questions live on his website…sometimes after a lovely answer to exactly the question presented and formed in stillness exactly the way it needed to be heard, he gives a chuckle and says, “always the same answer”… so true.  I love that he always patiently hears the questions and allows the answers to come through in stillness…of course, always the same essential answer with different words around it…but it is quite comforting to watch him reach the same conclusion again and again in peace and ever patient and present stillness.  Watching what presence looks like brings more presence and makes all these things seem possible.

We all have sacrificed so many precious moments to be caught up in some other thing that we think happened to us.  We hold on to other moments and give them so much more power than the one we are in.  We turn away from love when we do this.  I know and pray to live the truth that love is always accessible and we can live from love found in the moment rather than the chaos of a mind that isn’t free of the swirl of reactive thoughts.  Whatever we give our attention to expands.  Today, let’s let those thoughts pass through without our attention as we awaken fully to the life we have available to us now…each now that comes.

Today I pray for presence.  This is my prayer.  I pray to Live a lot rather than see, label and assume a lot, which leads to living a little.  I pray for the only answer…living fulling in the moment.  I pray to remember that each breath is a death of the prior moment and we constantly have a fresh moment to enter.  I pray that I may bring presence and peace around me and help it spread, giving joy to others.  I pray to live what I know.

Sending you love, joy and presence.  Your visit sends me those things in return.  Thank you!