Tuesday, Oct 18, 2016

I think living is a little on the strange side. Lately, the days go by and they are just normal, uneventful periods of time. I think they are pleasant days, but nothing spectacular grabs my mind. In many ways I could be having this present experience in the States. And that is what I think is strange about life, namely presence.

I’m thousands of miles away in a foreign country, whose people speak a foreign language, and I’m just doop-dee-doo’ing along each day, already in a semi-state of complacency of the environment around me. I understand how people can “live in their own world”.  I guess it is a unique human ability to create our own “life bubbles”.

The interesting thing to me is that I was tired and dissatisfied with my life bubble in the States. I was craving a different life experience…and I have it. Even here in Ecuador though, a life bubble is only as good as the investment I make. Spectacular things just don’t happen…well sure, they can…but that isn’t the norm in life.

I think the norm in life requires each of us to make our lives as spectacular as we want. It is our responsibility, and that responsibility is on us 24/7. And the responsibility I’m talking about involves our level of presence.

If you are at your job, it’s your responsibility to make that time fulfilling and rewarding. When you are at home with your family, the burden is on you to make that time have meaning and fill you with something enriching. When you are just out and about in the routine of your day, it is your responsibility to pause and look, to be present with what is in front of you, and to appreciate what it has to offer you…and then receive it.

present presence

The present is found in our present presence.

In a way this is a very freeing way to live one’s life. It doesn’t require you to be anywhere specific, it only requires your presence. I worked with a life coach, Richard Flint, who would say that “the present is in your present presence”. Think about it. I’ve discovered it to be true.

Right now, my present is being in Cuenca where my presence can be present with the small and the large things this city has to offer. I even get a bonus present, my family along side of me while I do it.

Chau.