The present — a gift

Intuitive Healer Katarina Winslow  reflects on the present

The time for the winter break is upon us and the church bells ring out this year, too, even if there is a lot of fear, doubts, and drama in the world. The delight of the Christmas celebrations is once again illuminating our winter darkness as we rejoice in happy times. We celebrate, we eat, and we drink to be merry. The songs of twinkling stars and reindeer sleighs warm our hearts in the cold.

All our gifts are waiting patiently under the Christmas tree, in kitchen cabinets or in our shopping bags. The gifts with which we will be able to communicate how much we care for each other and how much we appreciate the person we want to surprise. Even though we were given strict instructions about what to buy, the color code and the model!

But what if the real gift of these times is not our presents but to be present? Presents and present seem to have some intricate connection, even a mystical one. What if language was created for us to awaken us and see the codes and connections that a word can hold? Maybe everything is there right in front of us, and we just need to see it to understand the meaning of life. Our reality would drastically change if we all truly grasped the meaning of the present as a present. We would all know the meaning of life. We would understand that the only thing we have is now and that it is a gift. And if that now can’t be lived today, it is not that likely that it can be lived tomorrow either. If we live not now, but tomorrow, or when that change happens, we never truly live. If we push our capacity to be truly alive, truly present, to the next moment, the next hour, the next month, we will wake up just before our last breath and realize that we were never actually were there. We will then realize that all our precious moments went by unnoticed as we were waiting for the next one, the perfect one condition for us to just feel alive.

The time we have doesn’t come back even though time doesn’t exist in our soul’s dimension. So, when we leave this human life, you could say that we have all the time in the world or no time at all, as time is no longer an issue. When our souls leave our bodies, we have “time” as there is no time in the quantum field of our essence.

What if instead of giving each other presents, we gave each other the present moment? An unaltered absolute attention in the now. To be present with ourselves, with each other and with the winter climate. After all, time seems to be a beautiful thing to give each other. Time is also beautiful to give to yourself.

When I talk about time as a present, I’m not talking about a three-hour massage or a two-hour tennis game or a long walk in the forest. I’m talking about each moment and each minute of a three-hour massage. To be there in each stroke on your skin, to feel each instant of the touch. One touch after another, no mind involved only your senses. No thoughts about things, as all your thoughts are condensed into the gentle touch on your skin. Each movement and each ball of a tennis game. Not worrying about the whatever you said before you hit the ball. All of you exist only in the movement of your arm and the strength of your gesture. Each step and each breath of a long forest walk. No abstraction from where you are as you walk along the forest trail. You are there in each of your steps, hearing each crack under your feet as you touch the earth one instant after another. Your open senses feel the slightest wind on your cheeks. You welcome each breath of fresh air into your lungs. And if it rains, you become even more present, feeling the cleansing of a water drop. Cleansing your face and your soul.

Let us give ourselves the precious moment of now and keep at it until it becomes natural. One now, followed by another now till the end of eternity. Each moment dies, and it never comes back. So, if you are not here now, when will you be here? To push our present, our precious now into the future seems to be very human. It is something that we see everywhere and within most of us. I will start to live when I get that job. I will start to appreciate life when I find my perfect partner. I will start to love myself when I lose five kilos. I will celebrate with others next time, next year.

When we could all stop right now and love ourselves and others just the way we are. And take time to just be, to walk without purpose and to listen without agenda. To join in the Christmas Carol just for the sake of singing the sacred song. To give yourself the gift of a long bubble bath and silence. To give yourself time. Time to just be and time to just see, each other. To really look into another person’s eyes, to see their soul. To take the time to really feel the softness of skin, in a gentle touch. To take the time to savour the delicacies and the grace that Christmas has to offer, to slow down to really appreciate the flavours and the bubbles.

More than anything we have the now and we have our senses. The capacity to see and to touch, to listen and to be heard. The desire to raise our voices and join the Christmas chorus. To sing and to illuminate Saint Lucia’s path. So, let us all be merry and happy.

And present.

Together.

#Present #Gift #Now #Mindfulness