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Ripening Presence: This Moment Right Now · Infinitely Precious

• 0:00
  intro: Welcome to the Infinitely Precious podcast produced by Infinitely Precious LLC. Your host is James Henry. Remember, you are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.
• 0:12
  James: Hello, beloved. It's me, James, and it's another opportunity for us to be together here on the Infinitely Precious podcast. This week on the Infinitely Precious podcast, we moved to the eighth of nine dimensions that I've sort of developed in my own personal engagement in the world. Dimensions that I think I try to attend to because they help me to see the bigger picture. They're all part of ripening dimensions in my own life.
• 0:49
  And I believe there is a shared component, a ripening dimension to everyone's life. As I've noted before, this is not exhaustive by any stretch of the imagination. It's more the list that is emerging and has emerged thus far in my own pondering, journaling, thinking, living. And initially there were eight dimensions and a ninth dimension developed itself fairly early on and more may develop later. So here the eighth dimension of ripening is ripening presence.
• 1:37
  And you may, if you've been listening to all of the seven others think it ties in directly and maybe is even a subset to you in some ways of some of the others. The truth is they're all interrelated. They're all interconnected. And in many ways they speak to each other. They're in constant conversation, if you will.
• 1:58
  And when I think about ripening presence, I'm thinking about what it's like to be here now. We talked a little bit about that in ripening release, letting go of things so I can be present and the like. But in this particular focus, ripening presence for me is not being concerned about the end to which I'm headed, but the place where I find myself right now. So often, I'm rushing to get to the end. So often, it's some particular part of my work that I least enjoy, I picture getting to the other side of it rather than being present as I do even some of my least favorite things like administrative tasks in the office.
• 2:53
  Those kinds of things are challenging for me in terms of maintaining a level of presence because they're not the kinds of tasks that bring life to me. Engaging in a conversation with someone who's interested in their own spiritual life or engaging with someone who is struggling with a personal dilemma or loss or finding meaning. Those are all the kinds of opportunities for me that bring out the gifts I have to the best of my abilities. Those are moments where I want to savor the presence being there. When I'm doing administrative work, I'm trying to get to the other side.
• 3:38
  And that is where ripening presence is so important. Because even the administrative task of which I'm not fond is an opportunity for me to practice being present. It's an opportunity to let go of my desire to rush towards the end, to rush on towards whatever lies ahead and be where I am. Even if it is in crunching numbers, even if it is in spell checking some document I've created or trying to master the words in a letter I'm trying to put together. Because all of those too are opportunities to be present.
• 4:28
  Once again, the idea of ripening, we can be moving towards being more ripe. We can be moving towards being more unripe. And in any given snapshot may feel we are more unripe or more ripe depending upon how we perceive it from our own personal experience. So ripening presence is not trying to rush ahead. It's not trying to get to the next thing.
• 4:56
  It's recognizing here I am. This task needs doing and not only does it need doing. And even though it may not be my favorite task, it's an opportunity for me to be here to really see what this moment has to offer for me. And maybe if I'm truly present even in a task that I find tedious and tiring, I may discover something in that process that helps me see the world differently, that helps me see myself differently, that helps me discover more meaning and purpose in any given moment. I've come to see a truth in life and somewhere along the way someone shared this with me or read it somewhere.
• 5:44
  But oftentimes when we are trying to prepare for something down the road or we're getting ready for something else, we're trying to think creatively, it does not hurt to completely change gears to something else altogether. Because in so doing, we stimulate parts of our brains that weren't engaged before. It frees up some pieces of our brain to sort of work in the background and develop that creative energy and see something from a different perspective. And sometimes it's those tedious moments, those pouring over the details moments that for a person like me who is more relational than task oriented. For a person like me, it's an opportunity to kind of step back and to let whatever is washing over me just kind of work, kind of go on in the background.
• 6:43
  And sometimes it really I emerge on the other side, though I might grumble in the midst of it. That's not ripe presence by the way. Though I might grumble, I might emerge on the other side with a wholly new way of seeing whatever it was I was pondering before I entered into that space. So I don't know about you, but there are probably things in your life that are not your favorite things to do. I didn't always have a good attitude, still don't, let's be honest about some of the chores I do around the house as part of the family team.
• 7:26
  Sometimes I wash the dishes with great joy and exuberance, practicing presence in the washing of dishes. And sometimes I think, man, this is really keeping me from sitting down and having my prayer time or doing my journaling or getting on to some other more exciting thing, whatever that thing that I've defined as exciting is. And yet being present in that washing of the dishes reminds me of a wonderful book about a monk whose name was Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence. And for me, would summarize that book as I've read it in the past is that he practiced being, know, he saw washing the dishes. When he washed the dishes, he was washing dishes to glorify God.
• 8:21
  When he was sweeping the floor, he was sweeping the floor to glorify God. No matter what he was doing, it was to glorify the divine. It served a purpose. And so if I can step back enough from being frustrated by the tasks, at least internally I find tedious enough to really be present as I'm doing them, then I can do those very tasks to the glory of God. They can be the opportunity to truly engage in that moment.
• 9:01
  Some of the best times for me to think are some of the mindless tasks that I do. Another task that is often mine is vacuuming. I don't know how you feel about vacuuming. You know, I think I feel relatively neutral about it. But one of the things that I find to be true about it is when I engage in vacuuming, I'm able to free my mind.
• 9:28
  It's about setting patterns. It's about looking for spots to be sure that I'm getting as much of the material that might be embedded in the carpet and on the floor up. So, I pay attention to that, But in paying attention and focusing on that piece, it frees up parts of my brain to just rest and perhaps for the creative juices to be regenerated for future engagement. Ripening presence is an invitation to me. And I hope that it can be an invitation to you to recognize that no matter what this moment holds for you, it's an opportunity for you to practice being truly where you are right now.
• 10:18
  No matter where you go, there you are and you can be there. It can be the most exciting thing, the thing you love to do. Maybe you live for those conversations you have with people who come to talk to you or that you run into on the street or even people who are checking you out at the Home Depot. You might look forward to those with great joy. The surprises of conversation, the things that you discover.
• 10:49
  And all of those things are possible to be discovered in the presence of the moment if you are there, if you show up. Not so much with the expectation that the moment's going to give you something, but that if you're truly there, whatever the moment does have to give you, you might actually be awake enough, aware enough, have enough attention, might attend to that moment enough to fully experience it, to catch the glimpse of perhaps where the spirit's moving even in the task that isn't the top of your favorite list like mine. So I invite you to practice with me being present. When you slide out of the moment, when you rush to the end thinking, oh my goodness, thank goodness, I'm almost at the end of my office day. I can go home and have dinner and go home and watch TV.
• 11:53
  Instead of that, here I am. Yes, it's towards the end of my day. Yes, I might have already expended what energy I felt like I had. But what is this moment holding for me? This moment right now.
• 12:10
  I'm going to breathe myself back into this moment, pay attention to my breathing, recognize where I am, release the things that are trying to pull me into the future, pull me into the past, pull me away from here, ripening release as we talked about several weeks ago so that I can really in this moment ripen in my presence. Because if we can be as ripe as we can be in every given moment of presence, there are little nuances, little things we might pick up that we might see, that we might enjoy, that we didn't even notice because we were so busy rushing to the far side. Friends, may your presence ripen. May you pay attention to every moment in which you find yourself driving on the road if you're a driver, Cooking a meal, even if some of it is the devium of just chop, chop, chopping things. Cooking things, taking the temperature of things, tasting things.
• 13:18
  All of those can bring you back to the present moment. Maybe you will indeed have the stance that allows you to catch a glimpse of the spirit even now. Remember, present or not, you are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you are. Thanks so much for joining me today. I wish you all the very best.