The Joy of Presence. The Gift of Surrendering.

Sitting at the beach, contemplating on the ocean in front of me, I consider focusing on the Present by emptying my mind. I redirect my attention from my thoughts to what I am experiencing at the present moment.  I contemplate on the waves…. the sand…..the heat of the sun…the sound of the waves…. it is a beautiful sight.  I sit on the sand by the shore and allow the waves to caress my feet, legs and hands.  The waves come and go, some are murky with sand, and others are crystal clear. I emerge my two hands in the sand and pick up a handful of wet sand.  I start thinking that the sand represents the invading thoughts, the fears., the regrets, the anxiety.  The waves that clear the sand off my hand is the Truth… the Salvation..the Light… the Presence of God that liberates me from my thoughts…. from myself.  I allow the clear and clean water to clean my hands. In the same way, I allow Presence to clear my thoughts from worries, regrets, and fears.
Like children, living in the present moment is a delightful experience, without the rumination of the past and the future, but the joy of the now.  This new adventure of simply sensing what is really there, as opposed to fabricating in my mind what is not, gives me a whole new view of this life, as it really is. It takes practice because my mind tends to wonder towards the past that is gone or the future that is not here yet.  My mind wants to defend the fabricated self…. but this same self is the part of me I need to deny in order to continue to live in the Present.

Surrendering  my self means surrendering to my patriotism, my religion ,  my race, my ethnicity, my economic status, and everything that my mind has fabricated to protect my vulnerable ego.  It is giving up the part of my life that I use to hide my insecurity.  I am none of those things that people have tried to drill in my mind.  I am not the person that others want me to be.  I am simply me.  But in order to be me, I must surrender to all those facade that I have become addicted to, because they give me a false sense of security.  And how liberating it is to be simply me!  It is an adventure to simply give up the part of me that is really not me. It can be scary, but this is the beauty of this liberation.

It takes effort to have joy.  It takes courage to have a gift.

This is exactly what Presence brings, and what Surrendering is.