Let the Spirit Guide You in the Precious Present

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Yesterday as I was given my penance at Confession, I was reminded of a book that my parents gave me years ago after a monk introduced my father to it.

That book, The Precious Present, is not a decidedly faith-based book.  In fact, it speaks of no specific religion.  However, to folks like me, it speaks volumes about living in the moment with the Spirit's guidance.  In fact, countless times, the Spirit has led me to read and reread The Precious Present, thereby nudging me once again to focus on this moment and to live it well.

So it was yesterday that I came home from Confession and sought to read the book again as a part of my post-Reconciliation reflections. Unfortunately, I could not easily lay hands on it since it is, I think, buried in one of the many boxes in my basement.  Likewise, my children were needing me: There.  Present.  Attentive. 

Unburying The Precious Present just was not what was called for at that moment.  Living it was.  My oldest son was ready for my full attention to coach him through making his wished-for meal of the week, meatball soup.  My other two children sought time to play together, just the two of them, while my oldest and I worked in the kitchen.  Connection.  Relationships.  Mentoring.  That is what that moment called for, not Mom attacking boxes in the basement.

Later, time to go digging about the basement still did not present itself.  However, I was blessed to find a random man on youtube reading the story I knew I was meant to revisit:

The well-loved words of the book spoke anew to me as I listened to the youtube sharing of it.  I recalled the many years I spent traveling about looking for what might truly make me happy.  I closed my eyes, breathed, and gave thanks for the tenuous moments I made it through that led to the blessed moment of sitting on my couch, comfortable, my children closeby, my husband loving us.

Then, still later, as I prayed about what to share this week as my regular Training Happy Hearts in Young Children post, I noticed a video clip pop up on my computer's screen, which had been left on my Facebook feed.  The clip was but 16 seconds long and oh so sweet:  a long-time friend of mine, her young daughter, and her husband, holding hands, skipping along a road in the rain.  Knowing the challenges my friend and her husband went through just to have their daughter and, then, the harrowing fight with cancer that my friend's husband faced shortly after their daughter's birth made the video that much more poignant to me. 

How beautiful to see my friend's family healthy and enjoying a skip along a lane on a rainy day.  What a treasure of a moment.  What a precious gift to savor.

So it was that today's post came to be.  A simple one to remind myself and all who read here to take a moment today, and every day - or rather, many moments today and every day - to enjoy the precious present.   A call to pass the precious present onto the young children in our lives by letting the Spirit work in and through us all.
 

May the Spirit guide all of us, and may we each rest in the precious present today and every day.