The Only Place You Can Ever Be

Somewhere Else

The space between the future and the past is the ever-fleeting present. It seems that we rarely experience what is happening as we are so caught up in processing what just happened or what is about to happen. We live our lives in a state of recollection or anticipation (both of which are often saturated with anxiety). We live somewhere else, somewhere other than the present.

Five Miles Less

A couple years ago for Lent I gave up five miles per hour. Whatever the speed limit was, I would drive five miles less. This was not just my attempt to incite road rage in the drivers around me. This was my attempt to be present, to be where I am instead of where I’m going to or coming from. I realized that most of my time driving is spent looking at what’s coming ahead and glancing in mirrors to see what’s just behind. But these are more than just necessary driving habits; these are the ways we live our lives. We are constantly looking ahead at what’s coming up or glancing back to see what we left behind. We live in a perpetual “there” when all that really exists is the actual “here.”

My five-miles-less experiment was a reminder to myself to be present in this ever fleeting moment. I wanted to be where I am instead of where I’m not.

What does it mean to be where you are? What does it mean to smile, breathe, and go slowly? To soak up this moment and not the one behind or ahead?

Why Do You Eat Breakfast?

If you ask someone why they eat breakfast you will likely hear a myriad of answers: to start the day, to gain energy, to stay healthy, to satisfy early morning hunger pangs, etc. Yet all of these responses are ignoring the present moment for the sake of the future. They are are all anticipating something. Why do I eat breakfast? To eat breakfast. (The same could be said for running but I’m a much more avid breakfast eater than I am a runner.)

Be present. Be where you are. For it is the only place you can ever truly be.

Stop. And breathe.

Become aware of each in-breath and out-breath, present with the only moment that ever is: this one.