Be in the Moment by John Cali

A few weeks ago I was shopping at the local supermarket. As I paid the bill I reached into my pocket and pulled out my car key. I walked out of the store about 100 feet to my car. When I got to the car, my key had vanished.
John Cali

So I had to walk home to get my spare key. Fortunately, I live in a very small town, but it was still about a five-mile round-trip hike to get the spare key.

I don’t ever remember losing a car key in all the many years I’ve been driving. On the long hike I had some time to sort through all this. I realized there were several lessons this experience held for me. The biggest lesson was “Be in the moment!”

Even though it took only a minute or so to walk from the store to my car, somehow the key disappeared from my hand. Or, more likely, I lost it because I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing.

Lately I’ve been consciously practicing staying in the now, and I’ve gotten pretty good at it. This experience, however, clearly showed me I have more work to do.

Here’s Spirit.
Spirit

Being fully present in each moment of your lives is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourselves, and others. Your presence is truly a gift.

We realize your modern world can be a very distracting place. All the more reason to practice presence — full presence in every moment of your waking awareness.

Obviously you are physically present in all your waking and sleeping moments. But how often is your mind, your focus off somewhere else?

As John said, he’s been practicing present-moment awareness. But he slipped up when he lost his car key.

All you really have is the present moment. All of what you call past and future, all of your life, all of your reality are contained in the present moment. And only in the present moment. So you might as well be there — fully, consciously, deliberately.

You will find many benefits to practicing present-moment awareness. The biggest benefit is you will be fully there for yourselves and for the other people in your lives.

How often have you been talking with someone only to realize, perhaps far into the conversation, one or both of you are off somewhere far away? You have no idea what you’ve been talking about.

You owe it to yourselves to be here now, in every moment. You owe it to your loved ones.

You will find your lives easily flowing in ways that will amaze you. People will seek you out because they know you will really listen if they need to talk. You will be in tune with your physical bodies. You often ignore your bodies, to their detriment and yours.

You will find yourselves more relaxed and at peace in more and more of your waking moments. You will be happier and healthier. And, odd as it may sound, you will find linear time becoming more expansive. You will accomplish more in less time.

Those are only a few of the many benefits and blessings you will gain from such a simple thing as being fully present.

Make a conscious intention to be in the moment, always and in all ways. Then all will be well.

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How can you get better at what Spirit calls “present-moment awareness”?
We want to hear from you!

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This week’s newsletter reflection questions