Time, Thought, and Stories Are in the Present ⏳

When we first learn to stay aware of the present, we often learn by focusing only on something straightforward like our bodily sensations. We often throw out “thought” and normal conversational fodder like “Where are you from?”.

This is a helpful way to learn to be present, but can quickly throttle aliveness. Awareness, thought, and ‘where you’re from’ occur in the present just like emotion and sensations (where else could they be?). The past and the future also occur in the present—at least as far as any given experience-moment is concerned. They’re all waves on the ocean of experiencing: Equally wet (present), unique but not-separate. Mature relatefulness includes the truth of all experience in its loving embrace. And deep connection is supported by sprinkling in content.

In other words, time, thought, stories, ideas, histories, and projections can all enliven our connections, when our relationship to them is present to us. This becomes obvious when we think of the best story-tellers, comedians, dancers, etc. No matter how many times they’ve performed their act, they connect with the audience in a present-oriented way.

With love, Jordan