Awake to the Present

When this particular season of my life began some ten years ago, it seemed like I was entering into what would be the last season of my life.  After all, after retirement, what is left?  I remember saying in jest, but with some degree of candor, that the next move would be to the cemetery.  Getting settled into a new routine in a radically different place began to move me away from thinking that I had indeed moved into the final season of my life. 

 

While I know that I am closer to my death than I have ever been, I also know that there is a sense in which I am more awake to the present than any other time of my life.  More than in days past do I understand what Brother Lawrence spoke of as he wrote about practicing the presence of God.  What he surely grasped more completely than do I is something which is beginning to dawn within me during these days of being immersed in the creation.  Wherever I find myself being, there is always reason to take an extra glance or listen another minute.  What, or Who is out there just might be one the edge of coming into what seems to be empty of anything extraordinary. 

More than being a season with a note of finality, these days have turned into a season of becoming aware of the presence of the Holy One in everything.  Everything includes things as spectacular as a glorious sunset as well as things as ordinary as dirt.  There is no where we look where some manifestation of God cannot be seen.  He is constantly in the process of revealing Himself and speaking to us.  All we need are eyes and ears that are willing to seek what cannot be seen or heard.  All we need is to move into the future with our spirit open to the roving Spirit who created us and everything around us.  The present holds all kinds of possibilities for us as we stay awake to the present.