This Moment

This is about my response to my body and the world around me. This is about being aware and present to all things. This is about personal choice.

There is a wave of awareness and emotion that is in constant motion over time. The wave goes up and down and sometimes it is flat for awhile. At its highest, I am euphoric. At its lowest, I am in gut wrenching despair. Sometimes it goes higher than ever before or lower than ever before setting new personal records.

Sometimes the wave is heavily influenced by physical conditions of my body or with my circumstances. However, the vast majority of time, I am not aware of my body nor am I aware of the circumstances in which I find myself. Most of the time, I am focused on some mental plan or task or just relaxing. Rarely am I aware of the wave.

There is a way of being present and in the moment that defies the meaning of the wave. Consider a line that is tangent to the curve of the wave. The line would determine the slope of the wave at any given moment in time. However, consider the fact that, the point at which the line touches the wave is only one point. That is a point in time. That point does not have a slope to it. That point is merely a fixed moment in time. That point is not relevant to the wave or slope. It is as if, once the point is defined by the line, the wave and line disappear and all that is left is a point. It is a point of presence. It is a point of awareness. And, at that point, since it is fixed, it is not going up or down nor is it relevant to where it is on the wave.

Now consider the current point in time. Forget history or future. Concentrate on just this moment in time. Am I happy or sad? Are the circumstances good or bad? There is no way of telling what I ‘should’ be feeling or experiencing if I am not aware of where, on the wave, I am. Since there is no way of telling what emotions I would normally be having, there is an opportunity to choose the emotions for this moment in time.

There is a sense of complete and utter freedom when being present to only this point of time. If there are no critical physical influences, internal or external, then the choice of emotion is open for this moment of time. I can choose to be aware of positive things that exist in this moment in time or I can choose to be aware of negative things that exist in this moment in time.

If I choose to be aware of positive things, I will be happy in this moment of time. I may even feel joy just because I have the choice. The opposite is also true.

When I look at others, I see people that are happy by nature and I see people that are unhappy by nature.

The difference is the choice they are making in this moment in time.