Living in the Present Moment

I've been thinking since the retreat last weekend what it means to truly live in the present moment. I think that I have come to see that it means - for me - that I need to attend to, abide in, whatever it is that I am doing at any given moment. Honestly, I don't think that I am very good at it.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that, while doing one thing, my mind is usually elsewhere, thinking of the next thing I have or want to do. While working on a knitting project, rather than enjoying that particular project, I find myself thinking about the next one that I want to do. While hastily rolling out dough for pizza, I am thinking about how much time I have before I have to pick up my daughter from her friend's house. While running errands in one store, I am thinking about the next place I have to be. It is like my head is always ahead of where the rest of me is. And my heart is who knows where...

At the retreat, one of the talks was about abiding in the present moment. Marie Thérèse talked about how the word "abide" is in the same family as "abode", which is a dwelling. Can I ever "dwell" in what I am doing? Just stop, rest awhile, stop the whirring in my brain and just "be". This might do my soul a lot of good in this Lenten season. God is here, in this moment. Why would I want to be anywhere else?

Marie Thérèse shared how we need to pray for faith so that we can live more fully in the present moment. I thought that this was interesting, because obviously all of us at the retreat have some degree of faith. Why do I need faith specifically so that I can live more fully in the present moment? Perhaps because with that faith comes the realization that in and of myself, I can't do too much. I can't even be in the moment, since I am always somewhere else. It is by the grace of God - the gift of faith - that I can be in the moment...aware, attentive, expectant. In the moment is where God is going to reveal Himself. Again, why would I want to be anywhere else?