in this moment

This quote from John Philip Newell, found in my reading recently, struck me and stayed with me, resounding in the recesses of my heart:

Early in the morning I seek your presence, O God,

not because you are ever absent from me

but because often I am absent from you

at the heart of each moment

where you forever dwell.

I seek your presence, Holy One, not because you are absent from me, but because I am absent from you. Absent because all too often I live my life thinking about, planning for, wondering on what is ahead, what is next. And you, well, you dwell in the heart of this moment, here, now. You dwell in the quiet between the beats of my heart while I hardly even notice my heart is beating.

Yet truly, this moment is all that is real. This moment is where my hopes and dreams take form and substance. So don’t let me live occupied with the moments ahead or the ones left behind and miss the only one that is real, the only one in which you deeply dwell. Your voice calls me back to this moment again and again. Your voice, in the colors of spring and the beauty of each new day. Your voice, in the whisper of the wind through the prairie grass and the twitter of birds beckoning to each other.

In this moment life is real. In this moment I am present to you and to myself, to your gentle nudges and to my soul’s longing. In this moment I know peace and the passion of intimate connectedness.

Continue to awaken me, I pray, to the Mystery of you in this moment, the only place in which you dwell.