I am deciding to let go. Still waiting to be enlightened. Proclaiming harmony and pacifism. The here and now of today is all I have.
While doing yoga (which I have been wanting to do for a while), what came to my mind were these three words: patience… peace… presence. Patience to be able to wait for Heaven to come to me. Peace in order to maintain solemnity and thus clarity in my mind. Presence to be able to remain in the here and now, which brings me closer to Truth, to Heaven, to God. Presence can be reached only by separating from the worries about the future and regrets about the past, which is peace. Peace can be experienced by maintaining hope and waiting, which is patience. I know this is an idealistic and transcendent description, so let me use a more practical, everyday scenario.
I am currently on vacation until New Years Day. I may dedicate this time to choose to complain about every little unfortunate thing that happens to me (lost keys, dirty dishes, wife’s surgical knee, sick kids, etc.) or I may take a deep breath, embrace the suffering, and claim patience. I can choose to fight every battle with my kids, complain about the weather, criticize others, or I can claim peace and trust that life may continue and appreciate it the best way I can. I can dedicate this time to continue to worry about when work starts again, paying the bills, my family’s issues, and other life’s worries and regrets, or I can decide to give it away and focus on what is happening right now. I may choose to be bitter, or I may decide to be joyful.
I cannot reach Heaven. Heaven will come to me. So my next step will be to wait. I will dedicate these few days to meditate, reflect, pray, and take a lot of deep breaths. I will try to connect more with nature, slow down, and embrace others more. I must be more inclusive, flexible, and tolerant. The patience that I must have will be better than trying to expedite the Kingdom of Heaven to be manifested with my own strengths. The peace that I need to have is different from the peace that this world thinks it can provide. The presence I am hoping for is the unifying experience with the here and now, the everlasting God.
In order to live the Kingdom of Heaven, I think I have to have patience, experience peace, and be Present with God.
I thank my fellow blogging friends for giving me inspiration and advice on my spiritual journey. You know who you are. God bless.
Living the Kingdom 
December 28th, 2011 at 8:21 am
Noel, praise be to God for this poignant message of waiting with patience for God to work in our lives. This also helps us eliminate our expectations of how God should do it, so that we faithfully trust that when He does, it was for the better and because He loves us.
Since what I shared about mourning the old self to allow for the new self struck a chord, I’ll share another attitude i embraced that helps me and it may for you as well. You touched on it in this blog post when you said, “I may choose to be bitter, or I may decide to be joyful.”
I have made a conscious decision (or at least I try my best) to never allow myself to think of myself a victim of my circumstances. Once you start making this attitude change, you would be astounded as to the number of times we play the victim. Even if I let 20 people merge on the highway and the 21st cuts me off and flips me the bird, I never slip into a “I am a victim” status. In this way, I never let one small thing rob me of all the good fruit I am trying to bare.
Peace to you in this coming year.
December 28th, 2011 at 9:12 am
Hopeful_watcher, yes, it’s all about God. Victim mentality is exactly what my old self (ego) is based on. Narrow path is better. Peace to you too.
December 28th, 2011 at 10:29 am
http://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-yoga.html
It just takes you further from God… not closer… continued prayers.
December 28th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
Mark, thanks for the link. I understand your view, I’ve been there. Today’s Church focuses on converting others to think the same way it does, thus confirming its own decision and therefore, serving itself, not God.
December 29th, 2011 at 11:57 am
Noel, I sorry you are going through a rough patch lately. You are always there for me so here in my two cents to offer some support. I am currently reading “How to stop worrying and start living” by Dale Carnegie, and here is something I have recently learned from it:
1. Ask yourself “What is the worst that can happen.”
2. Prepare to accept it if you have to.
3. Then calmly proceed to improve on the worst.
These simple words have been life altering. I hope they work for you too.
Have a Happy New Year!
Marie
January 4th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
Hi Noel,
Wishing you peace, patience…. and presence for 2012.
January 4th, 2012 at 9:10 pm
Thank you, Cafeproz, same to you.
February 25th, 2012 at 9:09 pm
Hi Noel,
Thank you for liking my blog post, Peace Begins With You. I read over your blog and I see everything you write is from the heart, and that’s what it’s all about. I think everyone is looking for peace in their lives and regardless of all the umpteen spiritual workshops out there, gurus and whatever else people come up with, spiritual peace lies within the heart of each one of us. I totally understand where you’re coming from because I’ve struggled with this same thing for years. There is so much pain in the world and sometimes, it’s hard not to wonder where God is in all this.
Maybe no one has all the answers, but God and heaven are really everywhere you look. The beauty of nature, the animals, sunsets and sunrises are all evidence of his existence.
I beleive the people we know now, and those we have met, have all taught us something we needed to learn in order to progress on our journey through life. Even your children and your wife are teaching you something, and you are there to teach them. Lessons learned. Life is about learning, and unfortunately, there isn’t any manual to tell us how to go about it.
Noel, thank you for writing such inspiring posts.
Caroline “Celticsoulgirl”
February 26th, 2012 at 9:05 pm
Celticsoulgirl, thank you for commenting…like you said, life is about learning…. and we learn from our daily living…… through good and bad experiences. Peace be with you.
May 2nd, 2014 at 10:51 am
[…] nature of this blog. One of them is Surrender, Simplify and Serve (the subtitle of the blog) and Patience, Peace, and Presence. These are essential themes that have transformed my life recently. This current post is about three […]