Being in the moment...

Jackie Winfield

Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life. – Thich Nhat Hanh

I am here
I am here, in my life-space, in this place, in this moment – a moment during a journey which has a past, a present and a future ... and they are all here right now in my life-space, in this place, in this moment.

I am here.

I am.

I ...

I am my body ... my height, my weight, my strength, my health, my senses, my skin, my muscles, my bones, my blood ...

I am my thoughts, my memories, my plans, my beliefs, my decisions ... I am my feelings ... my anger and my happiness, my love and my hatred, my fear and my excitement, my confusion and my certainty ... I am the pains I have suffered and the hurts I have caused to others. I am the joy of success and the laughter of amusement.

I am my actions ... my movements, my gestures, my gait, my speed, my balance, my agility ... the wink of an eye and the frown on my brow. I am the exuberant dancer and the stillness in the shadows.

I am my past, both the remembered and the unremembered. I am my previous experiences, those which existed only in the past and those which remain. I am my birth and my childhood, my family and my neighbours, my schools and my language. I am the places I have visited, the sights I have seen, the books I have read. I am the dreams of my future and the nightmares of my darkness. I am my aloneness and my togetherness, a thousand hellos and goodbyes.

If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people. – Thich Nhat Hanh

I am my present, the view from my window and the empty space in the garage. I am the clock ticking on the wall and the words on the screen before me. I am the food I ate for breakfast and the games I played with my children yesterday. I am the crisp bite of wintry coolness in the air and the glare of white-edged clouds against a pale blue sky.

I am my future, my plans for later today, my tomorrow, my next year. I am the realisation of my hopes and the surprise of unanticipated events. I am my future, the known and the unknown.

In this moment, this flicker in the present, I am ... I am fully here with my past, my present and my future in all their fullness as I can know them or be them. I am everything of myself and a thousand or a million others.

Here is here
Here is here ... this time, this place. Here is this space, this locale, this country, this continent, this planet ... Earth. Here is here, in its fullness and its emptiness. Here is the light and the darkness, the wind and the trees, the warmth and the wetness, the smooth and the angular, the open and the hidden. Here is the sound and the silence, the order and the chaos, the freedom and the imprisonment. Here is waste and famine, peace and pillage, life and death.

You are here
You are here ... in this place, in this moment – a moment during a journey which has a past, a present and a future ... and they are all here right now in this place, in this moment.

You are your body, your dreams, your loves, your wishes, your successes, your fears, your family, your teachers. You are the streets you have walked and the adrenalin in your blood. You are your prayers and your rest, your celebrations and your losses.

You are here. I am here.

We are here
We are here ... and the interaction of all the possibilities of you and me and here are here in this moment, and the possibilities create innumerable other possibilities. Who we are and how we are and what we bring into this moment along with our consciousness of this moment and the possibilities therein, and the unknown possibilities within the moment ... all are here. There is an intersection of all the possibilities within our experiences – past and present and future – and all the possibilities of those possibilities, and these are intersecting with all the possibilities of this moment in this time and in this place.

I am here. You are here. We are here. Here is here. How will we be here together in this moment in such a way that we create something beautiful and healthy and wonderful? How can we ensure that the moments we spend with children contribute positively to their healing, to their development, to their lives?

This feature: Winfield, J. (2008). Being in the moment. Child and Youth Care Work, 26, 3. p. 35.