In This Moment

“In This Moment”

Rev. Dorothy W. Kimble

June 27, 2004

A few years back, I took instruction in the body-mind connection. Actually, the whole physical, emotional, spiritual connection. My instructor’s name was Lenore. She lived (and perhaps still lives) in western Massachusetts. Lenore re-minded me of some old stuff, things I’d known but forgotten, brought me to greater awareness, and taught me some new stuff. Things neither technical nor fancy, just simply wonderful.

This morning, I want to share with you some of what I have learned and recalled, things to which I/we should pay attention, and how paying attention can be such an affirmation of who we are. I will focus, however briefly, on the intricacies, complexity, simplicity and wonder of the human mind, body and spirit. This sermon is about us and our world full of competitiveness and anxiety - and how we might tame it. It is to some degree about Lenore’s teachings and her calming, centering gifts. It’s about a beginner’s offering (mine) to you ; to hopefully explore what I say here and now, and then in your own time to work with as you move through your week, your day to day living.

We are for the most part an anxious people, living in an anxious nation. Part of the reason is we tend to live in the past or in the future. We run between past experiences and impacts, and worry about what will happen tomorrow -- or next week or next year. This way of being has become our way of living. And we need to pay attention to that!

That’s one point.

Point two is - We’re human. We feel what we feel! -- fear, anxiety, worry, concern.

But Lenore would say, stay in the moment, most of what you are concerned about originates in the past or the future, and there is no past or future - ONLY NOW.

Well, I had heard all that before – and so have you. But the reminder pulled me up short. Not because she said it, but because I paid attention and really started to work with it.

I’ll return to this.

Point three is -- and for me, this was probably the most important point -- right now is the only time we have. Right here and now in this place is really the only place we can be. Anything else is an imagining.

We always only have NOW.

Let’s look at a concrete example. Where are you most likely to be if you are riding in your car?

Driving along or riding along on your way to work, or school, the doctor, or grocery shopping. Wherever. Where are you apt to be?

If you are like me, you are thinking about where you are going.

You are thinking yourself into the future. Upset, or nervous, or excited about upcoming prospects, you are not living in the moment.

You are not aware of the feel of that steering wheel under your hand, the fabric at your back, your foot on the pedal. And if you are, say, late, you are perhaps more anxious and more in the future.

What will he think? What will I do? Will I get there on time?

Isn’t this what we do?

So what are we supposed to do? Pay attention. Pay attention. For if we don’t, the moment slips away unnoticed.

That’s your LIFE (and mine) slipping away unnoticed a moment at a time.

Or sometimes we say we’re busy. So busy!

I’m so busy at work, I can hardly think straight! School is so demanding, I haven’t noticed a thing in days! I’ve done nothing but race around doing errands! The whole morning is a blur!

Busyness is often a cover-up -- sometimes for anxiety, sometimes for something that we just don’t want to think about, sometimes because we have just forgotten how to slow down and be attentive to the moment.

I’m going to ask you to do something. I am going to ask you to pay attention. Pay attention to this very moment. Pay attention to the fact that you are sitting quietly here in the moment; Comfortably or uncomfortably – sometimes it is the discomfort that causes our minds to flee or race.

But now, just let yourself be fully present. Let yourself feel safe and secure – or not. but be in the moment, this moment. Feel the pew at your back, the warmth of the room, hear my voice, really see whatever you are looking at, feel the touch of whatever - be fully conscious. Be fully present.

Too often we live in the past or the future. It is not a healthful state of being.

You may think I am wrong about you -- and maybe I am. I don’t know you. -- but I urge you to go through the next twenty-four or forty-eight hours and check it out. Particularly if you feel rushed or anxious or upset - check it out.

And, should you catch yourself - no matter when it is or how great or small the situation - ask these simple questions:

Is this worry related to a past experience?

Am I afraid something might happen in the future?

Am I okay right now?

For me, that last one was the most important. Am I okay right now?

So often we are.

But don’t take my word, see what you find for yourself.

For me, the experiment was quite a revelation! I found myself in the past and future way too often. (and still do at times) To catch that, though, and say “no” to it has been an amazing gift.

It is instantly calming.

And it is a gift that you can give yourself every moment just by living in the moment.

It’s a fascinating discipline. We are not taught to discipline ourselves to pay attention in this way, yet to do so, can change our lives.

Lenore taught me this mind game. It helps to develop that discipline, and to see the difference between what we are used to and how things can be. Working from the premise (the truth!) that we only have NOW -

First, identify what’s troubling you.

Then, ask yourself - What is the worst thing that can happen? (you are now moving into the future - which is what we do)

And now, here’s the interesting set of further questions:

What does it look like? How do you envision this going?

What would be the worst outcome?

If it is something that has to do with another person, carry it through so the end result is back with you. Your feelings. Your fears.

What does it feel like? emotionally

spiritually? bereft? hopeless?

What about physically? Can you feel the tension, anger, fear somewhere in your body? Check it out.

Okay, this time decide what the best outcome might be; make it a really happy or fulfilling moment. You’ve the power. Bring the results directly to yourself even if another person is involved.

What does your new outcome feel like? emotionally, spiritually, physically?

How do you feel now?

Living now, we do have the power to perceive things in a way that will make life better.

But it does take discipline.

Send a message from your mind to every cell in your body that in this moment you are okay! And watch and listen as every cell responds. You may feel parts relax that you didn’t even know were tense.

Ah, but about point two. We are only human and we feel what we feel.

Yes, we do. But we can still improve things. Our feelings can be worked out even when we cannot stop producing them.

Did you ever wake up at 2 in the morning full of fright? One kind or another? You feel like the worry owns you instead of you having any control over it?

Next time it happens, check it out. You can’t ignore it! So pay attention to it!

And then say, “Yup, there’s that feeling again.” Past or future? Which is it?

Now settle into the moment and ask that question again - Am I okay right now? Unless there is an intruder in your bedroom, chances are, you are.

Calming. This is a very calming exercise.

We nourish our bodies and our spirits with calming thoughts. With this self discipline.

Very Zen. Not used much in our society. But to be valued.

Have you ever heard the Zen story about the man and the bowl of strawberries?

He was on the 37th floor of an apartment building, out on the balcony, and for reasons I can’t recall, he fell over.

And for other reasons that I can’t fathom, he didn’t spill the bowl of strawberries he’d been holding, but instead - plummeting through space - continued to eat them.

He zoomed past the 29th floor and heard a man yell, “Hey, mister, are you okay?”

“Sure am. These strawberries are great!”

17th floor - “Hey, are you okay?”

“So far. These berries are delicious.”

On and on. Down and down. Floor to floor. Cement sidewalk on its way up. You get the picture. This was a guy who definitely lived in the moment. He lived fully and wholly and blissfully.

Even if these were his last moments on Earth, he was determined to live them to the fullest! Would worrying about his future have changed it one iota? Would wishing a different past - that he’d not fallen off the patio - have made a difference?

This is an extreme and dramatic story, but it makes it’s point.

I’m still only a beginner, but I get the drift. Life surely lies in how we choose to perceive it, and how we choose to value each moment. We can listen attentively to our mind’s unhelpful chatter and go there, or mindfully choose something different.

I love to read about Antarctica. I’ll say to my family, “I’m going on the ice.” They know I’ve got another book. A while back, I finished Richard Byrd’s Alone. An incredible story! He was at the Ross Ice Shelf in 1934. He had what we would now consider to be primitive cold weather gear, and was staying in a hut buried under ground - about 12X12 or so - with various ice tunnels. He was there alone and he got violently sick. The temperatures would drop into the minus 50s. There was a blizzard. His stove was pumping carbon monoxide into the room because the outlets had frozen over. He was in an extremely weakened state. Dropped from 180 pounds to about 125. And he said this, “I was feeling like a joke without a laugh. I felt like I was sinking in quick sand and calling out to a deaf person.” He thought he would not survive.

He wrote, “The articles of my faith presented no new convictions. I have always had them in a dim way. But now, the time has come to test them. There’s a big difference between mere affirmation and effective implementation….I have to work for that harmony...

So I tell you -Extirpate all lugubrious ideas the instant they appear, and dwell only on those which make for peace.

I had to look up “extirpate” and “lugubrious” to be sure he had said what I thought he had said.

Pull up all those sad and sorrowful and defeating thoughts by their roots! and dwell only on those which make for peace.

Body, mind, spirit. He made it through. His positive thoughts spurred him on and sustained him.

Pay attention. Resist those thoughts that undermine you.

But, we – at least most of us -- are beginners. I am not saying, “Don’t worry.” I am saying when you are feeling worried or distressed, stand still and pay attention. Think about what you are choosing to do. How you are willing to perceive the situation.

What you are giving up by such perceptions.

Many’s the time you will surprise yourself.

I hope these ideas from my teacher give you something to think about and to work with in the days ahead. I hope you will use some of these thoughts to teach others -- especially the children around you -- so that we as a society will become less of a worry state, and instead, hand on to those we love the gift of inner peace and strength, the joy of each day, each moment.

Lenore would say, “This is the life you have come for. The door to your spiritual way is wide open. Seek, ask for the positive in every moment, and watch your body, mind and spirit respond.

May the blessings of her words, be yours.

amen

Let us know of any comments, errors and corrections - thanks (revised 2/21/05)