“Today.”

Father Greg Boyle says that this is what many of the desert monastics would recite as a way of centering themselves in spirit.  He has his own mantra inspired by the name of a play off-Broadway: “Now. Here. This.”  It reminds him that what is in front of him, who is in front of him, is sacred and worth his attention.

(If you’ve never read Father Greg Boyle, hold the little button down on the top right of your device, or close the lid over your keyboard, and get yourself a copy of Tattoos on the Heart.  Bring a box of Kleenex.  You’re welcome.)

I’m trying to practice this today-ness, now-here-this-ness.  For me, it is a handful of words, “I’m not in a hurry.”  I say this a lot at red lights.  I say it out loud to old ladies I nearly cut off in the grocery aisle, “I’m not in a hurry.”  I find myself saying this to others more and more often. Really, I’m trying to remind myself.

This is the practice of presence.  Which is the practice of awareness.  

And awareness leads to awe; awe, to awareness.

I need more awe in my life.

We are hearing from so many different fields of study what is required for us to be grateful, not just in reflection of the past, but in the realm of the present.  Father Richard Rohr mentioned research suggesting that negativity imprints on our brain instantly, while gratitude and joy require we pay attention to it for at least 15 seconds.  We have to remain aware.

Charles Duhigg, the author of The Power of Habit, says that some physical things, like chocolate, imprint joy on our brain immediately.  But other things, like spending time with our kids or engaging in meaningful service, don’t imprint joy on our brain until we stop and recognize it in the moment.

Meaningful work or important relationships (spirit) take more time to enjoy than dark chocolate or a hot shower (soil).  There is a different cultivation necessary for our spirit.

Which means that we need to see our tasks differently, but also that we need to see people differently.

In the sacred Greek texts of the early followers of Jesus, we hear a teacher trying to get this through to his community: “Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits.  All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, to all kinds of people!”  This teacher is dealing with a community of faith that is divisive, bickering, and trying to use their power to say who is in and who is out. (Aren’t you glad we don’t do this anymore?) And this teacher comes along and essentially says, “While y’all are trying to pick and choose who gets the Spirit of God, I see the Spirit of God in everyone.”

Father Greg Boyle, who ministers to gang members in the heart of Los Angeles, translates this into his neighborhood like this, “Here is what we seek: a compassion that can stand in awe at what the poor have to carry rather than stand in judgment at how they carry it.”

Awareness leads to awe; awe, to awareness.

In order to feed our spirit, in order to bring depth to our day-to-day being, perhaps we need to be slowing down, paying closer attention, listening for the Spirit that grounds our spirit in the task in our hands, the sunset in our field of view, the person in our presence.

What if we lived in a world that was constantly asking us to speed up, to get to the next thing, to make the next appointment?  What would that be like?  What would that do to our spirit?

What might we practice instead?

“I’m not in a hurry.”

“I’m not in a hurry.”

“I’m not…”