From the Rule of Life:

We will be present to God, chasing after God’s heart with authenticity and vulnerability.
We will be present to ourselves, seeking wellness for our minds, hearts, souls, and bodies.

The challenge to presence can be a difficult one for me. Like so many other people, I have a tendency to fill my plate too full, always believing that I can schedule one more activity, fit in one more class a week, or have dinner with one more group of friends. I rush from one thing to another, every day of the week a different rainbow of commitments. I love my work, and a hectic schedule comes with it, but I recognize that at a certain point rushing around between obligations does not permit a life of true presence in any of the places that I have committed myself.

Because of this personality tendency and the hectic circumstances of my own life at the moment, our team’s focus on practicing presence has come at a perfect time for me. Over the past several weeks, I have begun to weave a thread of presence, or mindfulness, into my daily life. For me, this consists in the simple-on-the-surface, yet difficult in practice, habit of bringing my mind to rest in the one activity that I am engaged in at the moment. If I am teaching English to a class of Burmese refugees, then I seek to be fully present in the moment of teaching, not allowing my mind to wander to the running group I will participate in that evening. If I am on an hour-long drive to teach another English class, I let myself look out over the road, take in the sunshine, breathe, and focus on the drive (or at least on the book on CD I’m listening to) rather than thinking about the emails I have to return later that night. If I’m listening to a friend talk about her day at work, I focus on her story, looking at her face and listening to her words rather than mentally checking out and figuring out how to gracefully get out of the conversation and get on to the next item on my to-do list. This may sound like a very simple way to live…but it is very hard for me to practice consistently.

This practice of being present to the daily activities of my life is also a way of being present to myself. It slows me down and helps me actually live each moment of my day, rather than rushing through to the next thing. It helps me hear my own soul clearly, recognize and own my emotions, and choose what is best and right for me in each moment.

Being present to each moment also clears the way for me to be present to God. One of the most meaningful rituals of Christian faith for me is the communion table. I love the symbolism of sharing a meal, of bread and wine bringing people together, of Jesus choosing such ordinary things in which to make his presence known. “Every time you eat a piece of bread, every time you take a drink of wine, remember me.” I love to come to the table each week, knowing that just as I am, my community welcomes me to share in a meal of remembrance, deep friendship, and love.

Recently, I’ve been reading a book by Thich Nhat Hanh to learn more about the practice of mindfulness (or “awareness” or “presence”). And as I read this book, I found a beautiful section on presence and the Eucharist:

 “The practice of the Eucharist is a practice of awareness. When Jesus broke the bread and shared it with his disciples, he said, ‘Eat this. This is my flesh.’ He knew that if his disciples would eat one piece of bread in mindfulness, they would have real life…When we breathe, when we are mindful, when we look deeply at our food, life becomes real at that very moment. To me, the rite of the Eucharist is a wonderful practice of mindfulness. In a drastic way, Jesus tried to wake up his disciples.” (Thich Nhat Hanh, “Peace is Every Step”)

So as I live each day, I am seeking to be present to myself, to the activities of my day, to the people in my path, and to God, whose presence comes to us not only every time we eat bread or drink wine, but every time we bring our minds to rest in the unfolding beauty of each moment we live.

Posted by Kari