Present… It is so easy to want to bundle this year up and move on, but there are still minutes and days that need to be lived. There are moments that will be missed if I choose not to be present. Being present has been a discipline that I have had to choose. It is one I am still learning. It is easy for me to run ahead and miss the moment before me. I cringe when I look back and see how many moments I missed because I was rushing to the next moment physically or mentally. I have to choose to be fully present, which takes intentionality on my part. I often come back to Ann Voskamp’s quote on being fully present to slow time:
Time is a relentless river. It rages on, a respecter of no one. And this, this is the only way to slow time: When I fully enter time’s swift current, enter into the current moment with the weight of all my attention, I slow the torrent with the weight of me all here. I can slow the torrent by being all here. I only live the full life when I live fully in the moment. And when I’m always looking for the next glimpse of glory, I slow and enter. And time slows. Weigh down this moment in time with attention full, and the whole of time’s river slows, slows, slows.
I try to remember this and enter into the moment before me. When I do, there are so many gifts found in even the smallest moment, and precious treasures are often stumbled upon in the most unlikely, and even hard moments if I would choose to stay in them and be fully present.
Inkblot Life 
Voskamp is so poetic in her writing. That quote made me think of how God is called an anchor. He allows us to hold on to the moments.
Amie, FMF #13
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Thank you for the image of the anchor in the stream. That is so good! Only with God as our anchor can we be fully present in the moment. Blessings!
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This is just beautiful, Peggy. I love Voskamp’s words. And this fits so well with the book I’m reading right now, by Richard Rohr: The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See. He talks a lot about presence, about living in the now and experiencing God right there (rather than only in a church building or religious gathering) — and how Jesus lived that way when he walked on earth. I love how these thoughts are all coalescing today.
Jeannie (next to you at #19 in the linkup)
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Thank you for this. I will have to check out that book. Important thoughts.
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I wanted to run past the pain,
to leave it in the past,
to nulliy the bloostain,
but God said, “Not so fast!
Cancer’s not My will for you,
but it is My tool,
and if you will but see this through
you may yet find the jewel
that’s buried in the worst of days,
besmeared by muck and mire,
yet worthy of the highest praise
when it’s refined in fire
that brings My eyes to hot proud tears
in seeing you defeat your fears.”
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So many things I’d rather run past especially the pain and sorrow. Thank you for creating beauty in the midst of your hardship and reminded us to do the same. Continuing to pray for you as you walk this journey. May you know you are seen and loved.
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