Stumbled on this piece of insight many years ago while leading a workshop and instantly realized its value, brevity and clarity. It’s a bolt of light and the realization that if not present, a common state of most people, what is missed is the call, the knock at the door, the event that brings us the potential for learning something new. Also the possibility that this moment’s event brings the answer we have been seeking. Never to be taken for granted, events are experiences that may or may not have important messages that teach. So how do we benefit if not present and open to the message?
The demand that we be present, “here and now” has been around for as long as humanity and what humanity needed to do from its earliest is to survive. Here I refer to hunting to eat or avoid being eaten. Numerous events threatened survival. In fact for prehistoric man it was learn, apply or die. Learning the skills to survive had to be paramount and why almost any event had to be viewed as a “learning experience.” I would guess that if the majority of prehistoric man were like most of us today, many were caught and eaten. The rare one’s learned to survive and in the process became mentors of sorts. That is, they shared their survival insights gained with others and where initial leadership must have evolved from?
So I emphasize the importance of experience. I call experience an event because I see it as a learning opportunity. Something of lasting value may or may not exist, but how do we know? Like the prehistoric group that seeks to survive and at the same time to protect themselves. “I am the hunter who must also protect me from being the hunted.” Being in an experience often offers valuable lessons to learn and apply. Some offer very little and for others (the example of this day, pandemic) it’s “Do we learn and survive or do we panic and die?”
Our world today is caught in is a major event. Are we learning the lessons it offers or are we lost in worrying about tomorrows? My plea is to do everything possible to stay present and squeeze any and every lesson from it. This is a time to learn and apply not to run into the morass of “what will be?”
We need to survive this day so that we are better able to meet the morrow and take care of what tomorrow brings. We can’t spend our time worrying and planning. It is this day we must survive and in the process squeeze all learning from this day so that we are better able to survive and even to make better and safer our world. I suggest the following: We live on a relatively small planet. It has limited resources that have to be cared for to the extent that no one goes without, that is: clean water, land that is able to grow food, air that is breathable, health care, education and government that governs for the good of individuals not for a select group. Also, as today so clearly points out: No one is an island unto themselves. Earth is our home and where we live and also where we share all major events. A lesson so well learned today: Much of what take place elsewhere on earth affects every other place on earth. Are we going to be the hunter seeking sustenance for our group, or are we still the hunted, terrified and only concerned for our own survival? Sy“Pandemic” the name————How do we care for our self?————-Being there for each.-
The demand that we be present, “here and now” has been around for as long as humanity and what humanity needed to do from its earliest is to survive. Here I refer to hunting to eat or avoid being eaten. Numerous events threatened survival. In fact for prehistoric man it was learn, apply or die. Learning the skills to survive had to be paramount and why almost any event had to be viewed as a “learning experience.” I would guess that if the majority of prehistoric man were like most of us today, many were caught and eaten. The rare one’s learned to survive and in the process became mentors of sorts. That is, they shared their survival insights gained with others and where initial leadership must have evolved from?
So I emphasize the importance of experience. I call experience an event because I see it as a learning opportunity. Something of lasting value may or may not exist, but how do we know? Like the prehistoric group that seeks to survive and at the same time to protect themselves. “I am the hunter who must also protect me from being the hunted.” Being in an experience often offers valuable lessons to learn and apply. Some offer very little and for others (the example of this day, pandemic) it’s “Do we learn and survive or do we panic and die?”
Our world today is caught in is a major event. Are we learning the lessons it offers or are we lost in worrying about tomorrows? My plea is to do everything possible to stay present and squeeze any and every lesson from it. This is a time to learn and apply not to run into the morass of “what will be?”
We need to survive this day so that we are better able to meet the morrow and take care of what tomorrow brings. We can’t spend our time worrying and planning. It is this day we must survive and in the process squeeze all learning from this day so that we are better able to survive and even to make better and safer our world. I suggest the following: We live on a relatively small planet. It has limited resources that have to be cared for to the extent that no one goes without, that is: clean water, land that is able to grow food, air that is breathable, health care, education and government that governs for the good of individuals not for a select group. Also, as today so clearly points out: No one is an island unto themselves. Earth is our home and where we live and also where we share all major events. A lesson so well learned today: Much of what take place elsewhere on earth affects every other place on earth. Are we going to be the hunter seeking sustenance for our group, or are we still the hunted, terrified and only concerned for our own survival? Sy“Pandemic” the name————How do we care for our self?————-Being there for each.-
