Sometimes We Fall On Our Faces...

I think everyone now and then has taken a fall. Ice, wet pavement, mud, a stumble over something we don't see...all those unexpected violent moments seem to happen when we're totally unprepared, maybe thinking of something completely apart from the danger at our feet. Not being mindful of our footing, down we go!

I had a fall like that tonight as I was stepping into my home after a long day. I was busy thinking about a conversation I'd just had with a very nice lady who was interested in buying a miraculous medal from our store. We talked a very long time, and then I headed home. My mind, however, was back wandering around the many things we touched on in our discussion.

Now, I have to take responsibility for this "accident" because I know the step into our house is steep and I always have to be careful. I've had bad falls before, you see, so I'm not unfamiliar with what might happen. Yet I was not mindful of the NOW, the moment in which I was living, stuck as I was in "the past" even though it was the recent past of just 20 minutes earlier. I was not living in the NOW, was not mindful of NOW, and down I went. I spare you the ugly details of the cuts, etc., as it is the lesson upon which I want to focus. I need to focus!!

How often do we live our days in the past? Whether it is the days of our youth, joyful or challenging, or downright painful, or last week's conversation that may have left us with much unsaid that has haunted us (if I only said ...). Maybe we focus on past relationships that have hurt us, or ones that have been so positive that we cannot bear to continue living in the flesh without that other, so we cling to memories without notice of today's Grace.

I discovered a wonderful lesson tonight. Sometimes at the end of the day we fall on our faces...because we are still back in the middle of the day. Sometimes in life we fall on our faces because we are not truly living fully in the NOW with all the potential given to us by God. If only this, if only that, while God waits patiently, lovingly in the present moment with outstretched arms of love, waiting for us to focus on Divine Love in this life NOW, or (yikes) waiting to catch us until we do become mindful of NOW and this moment's Divine Love.

I wish I could have learned this lesson from some mystic I've read and reread. Alas, I learn best from experience it seems!