Presence: An Invitation
Presence. As I say the word, I naturally find myself coming home into my body. I breathe, noticing, lingering in this space. Slowly, a remembrance arises. A memory of an experience where at that time in my life I couldn’t sit in presence at all. I was too occupied on what I needed to do and who I needed to become. Spirit always shows us what we want and need, just not always in the package we assumed. Under the dark starry sky, lit by grandmother moon, I was shown my true essence and my love within.
First, I was shown myself at the age of two. There in my diaper, beaming with pure joy, I felt the full sense in my body of myself at this age as I witnessed myself at this age. I was inside my two year old body. My innocence, my purity, my innate joy and childlike zeal filled every cell, fiber and atom of my being. I heard Spirit say, “This is your true essence. Come home. Again and again.” Instantly, a knowing came over me that I was not the stories, programs, beliefs or projections I picked up or were put upon me by the world. I was not the survival behaviors of my wounds. I was not the “life purpose” that I so desperately intended to know. There was nothing to become in order to be meaningful. Nothing to prove or be deserving of. I was not lost, broken or needed fixing. None of us are. We are all innocent, pure and of joy at our true essence. Buried as it may feel at times, it always remains within for us to uncover.
Then, Spirit showed me my body as a sacred temple that my spirit resides in. Where it comes to pray, to bow at the alter of life, to commune with God, and to co-create. It’s where I greet the Divine and meet the divinity within myself. It’s the vehicle in which my spirit navigates this earthly realm. Together we travel many roads to unknown destinations. I am to love, respect and honor this temple that is my current home, my body as holy ground, I heard Spirit say. It loves and serves me and will continue to nurture me as I pour my love into it. Its intelligence will guide me every step of the way. It took years for me to begin integrating this. Understanding the body is temple as a concept was easy, but I had been so conditioned to not be in body (embodied) I didn’t know how to do it or what it felt like. Up until that point, my spiritual teachers had not taught me either. But alas, the unfolding path led me to the well. For those that were not taught or have felt safe to be in the body will feel a deep, sacred homecoming when we do. A longing and safety we always yearned for, always looked outside of ourselves for, was always right here, within the presence of our body.
“Here in this body are the sacred rivers: here are the sun and moon as well as all the pilgrimage places. . . I have not encountered another temple as blissful as my own body.” - Sahara
When we come into stillness, into presence, there’s a sense we enter into our temple. We never left the temple, but our consciousness of the moment feels like a re-entry. We are aware we are on sacred ground that connects us to our holiness, if even for the briefest of moments. This entry need not be forced. There’s a never ending, continual invitation that is ever available in each moment. We simply arrive. Here, in our sacred temple, we breathe, we notice, we exist as we are.
To be in this space while in the world is a fine dance on a balancing beam. Luckily, we don’t get graded or scored. We practice and even have fun in the process! That invitation is always there too. This temple goes where we go and very importantly, we get to determine who and what enters our temple.
You may have heard people talk about presence more, and more lately. It’s the new hot word in the New Age community. I feel a slight pang in my chest. “I don’t want a group to hijack it,” I say to myself. Even though we are all having a spiritual experience, this home coming is not only for the spiritually conscious. This homecoming is the breath of life for all sentient beings. It is innate in nature and she does it easily, gracefully. We too are a part of nature.
From our temple, as we feel our breathe, we can receive deeper wisdom and truth. We feel the fullness of love that resides in our heart space. It is subtle. Oh, so very subtle. And if we hadn’t come into our temple of presence, we may have missed it all. We can sense the nuance, the ever-flowing changes and shifts that happen moment to moment. Nothing stays the same. Energy moves, vibrating at what is named to be feelings and vibrating at what has no name, for this language is limiting.
The power of presence is commanding. It is our point of power. We start there. Expanding out. The ancient mystics and medicine women/men sat in silence, had vision quests in solitude and silence because it is in this space of presence, in the silence, that what is hidden, what is ready to come forth, can arise to be heard and seen. We can hear the whispers of our soul, of the divine that often speaks to us under our breathe. At times, we will resist the honest messages that are tender and sometimes harsh as truths can sometimes be. Yet, these are the light posts that illuminate the unfolding path for us in this realm. We are never alone.
In this fast-paced modern world, where we chase dreams, build careers, keep up with the Jonse’s, get distracted by other people’s thoughts, fall at the mercy of the chaos and tragedies in the world, get inundated by the noise outside, and have to move through our own growth on the self-realization journey, it has never been more vital to our well-being in mind, body, spirit to come home to this inner temple of presence. To feel our breathe that is life, to connect to our deeper existence that is divine intelligence, which is also the frequency of true love. To be alive in our innocence, purity and joy. To be the peace and harmony that allows us to feel that all is well, all is well, all is well in the world, above and below, within and without. From this point, we are the magic and we are the magician. What has Presence gifted you in your experience?
More to come with Presence. Until then, namaste.
“If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life.” - Thich Nhat Hahn