Hello friends!

Am I ever so glad to be back at my familiar spot, as my fingers eagerly type away the words I have been holding for the last few weeks.

I am back in America, the place I call home. Wanderlust has taken hold of me for the last nine years, but Europe has become a particular place of wonder for me. The old world, as they call it, has indeed captivated me. There’s something about traveling to places that are ancient compared to the United States. It is true that I gravitate toward anything or anyone that has more experience than me. I love to learn vicariously through the lessons they pass on.

While there are so many stories that I want to share with you today, I could not begin to unpack all that I’ve experienced without first writing to you about the practice of living in the moment.

You see, living in the moment has saved my life. It has helped me learn the art of reality and perspective. But there is one downside of living in the moment, and that is —forgetting.

Have you ever had an amazing moment when everything was going the way you’d hoped and dreamed, your senses were heightened, and your breath was deep? You felt most like yourself and in tune with God and the world around you, and then suddenly, that sense was just poof — gone.

That sense begins to dissipate, and remembering what it felt like begins to fade. There is nothing we can do because the next moment is ushered in, and we find ourselves in the now, and the now is—well, you know—completely different.

Every moment is a miracle; life in me is not guaranteed, which is why I think it is nothing short of miraculous. An opposite view of that lies in our consciousness of the moment and how we qualify it. But that is unfair to do because any given moment is full of the divine presence of God, as it can be. Every present moment has no competition, and it is not judged in comparison to any other in God’s reality.

For the past nine years on the path of recovery, learning to live in the moment has saved and healed my life. The practice of being present, aware, and alive grounds me and heals my nervous system. But living in the moment also means letting go of the moment that just was —even when that moment was just marvelous.

There were many marvelous places in my trip. Like the first time I saw the Swiss Alps, I couldn’t help but whisper, “Wow, Lord, you really outdid yourself .” Or the swans floating on the lake near Neuschwanstein Castle, where I couldn’t help but wonder — if Earth can be so beautiful, I can only imagine what Heaven will be like.

We were born with an innate desire for beautiful things and places, for a God who revels in beauty created us in His image. Our souls also look for beauty everywhere we go, and those ever-fleeting moments make up the life we build.

I consider myself a bit of a mystic, simply said, one who pursues experiencing life in a spiritual and transcendent way. In the moment when I flew over the big blue ocean, I set my intent with a prayer: “Father, show yourself to me in the world.” This is the kind of prayer that gets an answer in the most unexpected way. So He did, and what I saw was people made in His beautiful image, just like me. We don’t experience perfect people here; we experience perfect moments. Glimpses of divine order in every person and place, stamped with God’s love for us, display the most profound state of present reality.

The secret to living a contemplative life is learning to live in the now because if the now has never been sufficient, we will always be grasping and floating, far from being grounded in God’s reality.

We can only handle so much beauty and so much pain. The microcosm of the moment helps us get through life in the balance of the two.

I’ve been back for a week, and Vienna is no longer waiting for me but is now behind me, waving at me as if saying it was nice to see you here, too.

Friends, this moment right here and now is all we truly have. Let's make the best of it; no matter where we are in the world, this is where we should be now. Tomorrow, we shall see.

For now, I leave you with a prayer for the week ahead.

Father,

I pray that we may be filled with the knowledge of your will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so we can walk in a manner worthy of you and live the life you are calling us to live.

May we fully please you in the way we think, feel, and act, bearing fruit in every good work and purpose.

Increase in us the knowledge of who you really are.

By Your grace, grant us the power to experience the realm of your glory.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit,

Amen.

Until next time,

Love God, love you, love others.

(Prayer adapted from Colossians 1:9-11)

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