Here: Be Present
This is a very belated Five-Minute-Friday post from Aug 6th. The prompt was "Here".
So...here goes!
"He isn't here! I mean, he is here physically, but he isn't here with me." I whined to my mother.
For a few years that is how I lived, side-by-side with my husband. Together, yet not. Each of us off doing our own thing, barely interacting with each other. We went through different phases throughout our married life, and that one was very lonely. To be with someone, but not be present feels very hollow.
Today, I see children, learning from a very early age to not be present. They are side-by-side, sitting next to their "friends" but they aren't there. They are on their mobile phones checking in on social media, texting another friend that is only yards away from them...they aren't "here" in the present, looking into the eyes of the one sitting next to them, and having a real-life, in-the-moment, conversation with that person.
I sometimes wonder, when they grow up and meet someone special, if it is difficult for them to focus on the object of their affection longer than they focus on what has become a virtual replacement for friendship. Our culture is fostering relational hermits that just so happen to be seated in a large group of people, who all have their eyes focused on that object in their hands.
Just imagine, if you can, if everyone put that object down for one day and looked at each other. What would they say to that person who's sitting next to them? Could they look them in the eye and hold that gaze for any length of time? Would they know how to be present?
No matter what our ages, we could all stand to practice being "here" in the now, paying attention to our surroundings, being present.
Are you here?
STOP! Join the writing party every week at:
So...here goes!
"He isn't here! I mean, he is here physically, but he isn't here with me." I whined to my mother.
For a few years that is how I lived, side-by-side with my husband. Together, yet not. Each of us off doing our own thing, barely interacting with each other. We went through different phases throughout our married life, and that one was very lonely. To be with someone, but not be present feels very hollow.
Today, I see children, learning from a very early age to not be present. They are side-by-side, sitting next to their "friends" but they aren't there. They are on their mobile phones checking in on social media, texting another friend that is only yards away from them...they aren't "here" in the present, looking into the eyes of the one sitting next to them, and having a real-life, in-the-moment, conversation with that person.
Photo from Clive Thompson The Daily Telegraph Feb 1, 2014 12:00 AM
I sometimes wonder, when they grow up and meet someone special, if it is difficult for them to focus on the object of their affection longer than they focus on what has become a virtual replacement for friendship. Our culture is fostering relational hermits that just so happen to be seated in a large group of people, who all have their eyes focused on that object in their hands.
Just imagine, if you can, if everyone put that object down for one day and looked at each other. What would they say to that person who's sitting next to them? Could they look them in the eye and hold that gaze for any length of time? Would they know how to be present?
No matter what our ages, we could all stand to practice being "here" in the now, paying attention to our surroundings, being present.
Are you here?
STOP! Join the writing party every week at:
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