Trying Not to Get Anywhere

If you’ve visited a bookstore lately, and strolled down the “Self-Help” section, you’ve probably noticed that the shelves are stocked full of every possible title imaginable, on every possible subject. Sometimes, I think I can hear the shelves actually moaning under the weight of all those books.

I mean, if you want to lose weight, find religion, lose religion, and find weight…it’s all there my friends. Every conceivable angle is covered, for a nation I’m guessing is obsessed with trying to get to some level of perfection.

As for me, well, guilty as charged. I too have from time to time gorged myself at the table of “Self Help”, only to find that while the quantity of “food” was staggering, the taste was a bit flat.

Just yesterday, I watched on television a couple being interviewed on finding one’s passion in life. The couple was certainly well-meaning; I do not mean to say I’m cynical about their claims of helping folks find their true calling in life. It is a noble pursuit.

But, lately, for me at least, I’m perhaps noticing for the first time that true happiness, true peace of mind really, can really only be obtained by purposely trying not to get anywhere. I have started my own little practice of meditation. It is through this daily practice that I am, for the first time in literally decades, seeing that by parking my butt in the present moment, and staying there for 45 minutes at a time (the length of time I generally meditate), that peace of mind is found now, right here, at this very moment.

I’ve always been one of those folks who believed that “someday”, peace of mind would be mine, when work was over, kids were out of the house, and all the bills had been paid. But, life continues to happen even after all of these events have transpired, at least that’s what I’ve heard. So when exactly was this peace of mind I aspired to possess going to happen?

Peace of mind, contentment, and happiness are qualities that have to happen sometimes almost in spite of everything else that is going on in one’s life. There will always be challenges. There will always be bills to pay, mouths to feed, and everyday trivial annoyances in one’s life. Peace of mind, if it is to ever happen, must happen by us choosing to have it, and choosing more importantly to practice living in the present moment.

I am far from an expert on meditation. For that, I recommend that you look elsewhere, as there are many great books on the subject that will get you started (here I am taking digs at self-help books, and I’m promoting another self-help book! But, trust me, this is different!). I’ve just started my own practice really. But, I can tell you that it does help to show you, and me, what living in the present moment really is like. For 45 minutes at a time, I sit and watch my thoughts go by, trying not to cling to any one of them, and just sit, immersing myself in the lovely and beautiful present. When I am finished, I find that I am much calmer, much more optimistic about things, and this feeling permeates a lot of the different aspects of my day as I move through it.

Meditation is quite literally a “non-striving”, a purposeful time-out from life, or perhaps I should say time-in to the present moment, where we just sit, and be. I really believe this is how God wants us to live our lives, just moment by blissful moment. We humans tend to believe that we will magically arrive some day, to a place where peace of mind and happiness reside. So, we continue to buy all the self-help we can get our hands on, to lead us to this blissful destination, as our everyday lives tend to not resemble utopia in any way, shape, or form.

Perhaps one of the great truths in life is that happiness is found right here, and right now, this very moment, despite what your particular circumstances are in your own life. God doesn’t truly want us to agonize over our mistakes in the past (yep, I’ve sure done a lot of that), or worry about all the possible calamities in our future (yep, check that one off for me too). He just wants us to enjoy this moment fully, this wonderful mostly untapped moment right in front of us, and then move naturally on to the next one.

So, it’s a bit of a paradox really. But its been my experience that God works through paradoxes a lot of times. Only, they really aren’t paradoxes to Him, just to us.

By trying not to get anywhere, you tend to arrive here.

And “here” is turning out to be a mighty fine place after all.

-The Minister