Happy to be "here"

Type the words, "Living now," into google and you will get 1.57 billion results in .86 seconds.

The ability to live in the moment is a very desirable ability.  It is the subject of freqent advice in the Western world, in addition to being one of the goals of the practices of Buddhism.  A school of Hinduism teaches that, "nirvana is located in the space between two thoughts."  In addition to these venerable traditions, there are 1.57 billion other advices and methodologies available regarding this subject at the click of a mouse.

Part of the difficulty with the internet is that there is no evaluation of importances.  We have no shortage of data available to us - what we lack at times is a filter.

One of the students at our church wrote a success story this week that illustrates the benefit of being able to live in the moment.  She and her partner completed their course within a few hundred hours.  While this may seem like quite a bit of time to achieve the ability to be fully present, it is incomparably short when viewed against other practices, and the success itself is worth any amount of time to achieve.

"My whole life, I've always felt kind of 'out of it.'  I actually thought it was just part of who I was.  I was that spacey girl or the introverted one, etc... This course really handled that for me.  I find myself looking at people and finding them interesting.  I find the environment that I live in very interesting, and my life is interesting.  I spent many years feeling sad and regretful about things that happened in the past.  Now, I'm just focused on what's happening right now - the friends I have now, my house now, my dogs now, my husband now, my job now.  I've spent most of my life thinking about the past.  I am now able to live my life right here and now - and it is very enjoyable."