Wind On My Face
This entry was posted on 5/8/2008 7:24 PM and is filed under lessons.
Being in the moment is experiencing God in everything. From the beautiful sunset, to the garbage ridden alley. God is not absent from anything. Eckhart Tolle, author of
The New Earth, says knowing yourself is to be rooted in being, not lost in your mind. Yes! My mind takes me everywhere but here. It is amazing how I can be walking down a spacious, alive tree lined street, and be thinking about three months from now. My children are my master teachers in relishing the moment.
When Andrew finishes his school day, here is how we usually reconnect, "How was your day, Andrew?" "Good." "What did you do today?" He responds either, "Nothing", or, "I don't know, Mom." Children are in the moment. No wonder Jesus told us to follow the children. Young children and animals are instinctual. They aren't living for tomorrow, they are living for the moment. My questions take Andrew backwards. And he is not there. I also did this with Lizzie as we celebrated her birthday together; eating yummy applesauce cake, looking into her eyes, I asked her about her day; the part that already happened. It is so easy to do. Many would ask, then, what do we talk about? Good question.
I am trying out some new ways of talking with my children. We stepped out of the car the other day, and quite frankly, I felt at a loss. If I didn't ask about something they had done that day, or something we were looking forward to, what we would talk about. So, I decided to play with this a bit. I said, "Wow, can you feel that wind on your face?" And they said, "Yeah, Mom, it's really strong today." And, Lizzie just turned her face up to the sky to feel it. And then I said, "Look at those brilliant red flowers over there." And Andrew said, "Yeah, they are really growing, Mom." And so on and so forth. I have to say,in that moment, I was more present to my kids. And they were present to me. I liked it a lot. We actually had more to say to one another. I agree with Jesus, let's follow the children or the cat or the dog. They are not in yesterday or tomorrow. They are not missing a moment. They are right smack in the middle of it.
