Spiritualists talk a lot about being in the moment, about not looking back or looking ahead but knowing where you are and accepting it. To me, this has always been one of those ideas that is easier said than done. Like many of the people reading this, I am a worrier. I look back at things I wish I have done, and ahead to things I ought to be doing, hope I will be doing, or fear I will be doing.
It is only in meditation that I have begun to understand this notion of being in the moment. I light a candle, turn down the lights, take off my shoes, breathe deeply and think of myself as sinking to the bottom of the sea, but not drowning, floating down into the darkness and the quiet. This is all there is for me, this quiet, this darkness, this sensation of floating down to a peaceful place, beyond messages, obligations, the worries and anxieties and pressures of the modern world.
This has taken me a long time, years of practice, of success and failure, of repetition. Our lives are so busy, so loud, so fragmented, there are so many intrusive and disturbing images swirling around us, that I see I need to stop, to leave this world behind to find my moment, my moments. They have become precious to me, powerful and calming, I feel the creative spark down there and am called to the work of my God. It is bigger than anything I face on the surface, bigger than life, money, conflict, aging, illness or death. It is barren of all feeling but love. It is a loving place and safe, beyond the reach of anything but my own consciousness, my own heart and soul.
Up above, it is so difficult to find quiet and peace, floating down it simply becomes more peaceful and quiet by the moment. In this space, I am alone with myself, I experience no sensation but the one of drifting quietly, of floating into peacefulness and mystery. Here, I understand the notion of being in the moment, of shedding the thoughts and concerns of the material world. It is a spiritual place for me, I see color and light as I descend, and it just gets quieter and quieter. For me, that is reality, that is the boundaries of my world. In the moment, for a moment, one moment at a time.