Picture: Lake Mead from campsite the morning after the storm.
We have returned to our pilgrimage south and rejoined our “Heaven on Wheels” tour of North America. I do not consider it a break from our pilgrimage that we should have returned to Camano Island for surgery and treatement, only that pilgrimage has taken us on twists and turns not anticipated.
Thanks to Rick and Judy our RV was in excellent shape on our return to Lake Mead campground. We were, in fact, just parked feet away from where we had last left it, only in a fenced storage area, and now we are camped nextdoor at Boulder Beach overlooking Lake Mead.
It is interesting how the mind processes the past in the here and now. It is as if the surgery just 10 weeks ago today and the subsequent recovery was but a dream. When at Anandashram we sat with Swami Satchidananda out in a cultivated field on facing concrete seats made for our daily visits. Swamiji led us in the song, “Row, row, row your boats, gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream.” Those were sweet moments, and when taken deep witihin, this song is very meaningful.
Our higher human brain functions mean that we can ruminate more on the past and spend more time anticipating the future. While these functions enable us more far-ranging thought, it can come at a price as well. Past experiences, especially traumas, can loop in the brain like a film played over and over, creating new feelings of distress every time it plays as if it is all happening again. Our anticipation of the future can take an obsseisive turn in which we think of what is to come; when it is a happy thought then we are happy, but when they are troublesome thoughts then we become very anxious.
This focus on the past and the future can absolutely rob us of the the present. God-experience occurs only in the present; it also heals us of past trauma and anticipates being wrapt in the Divine Presence, always. God-experience places both future and past into its right perspective, and gives us the great joy of living in the present.
There are some who never find joy from living in the present. Instead, they heap loads of trouble borrowed from the past, and imagined anxiety from the future, feeling that life is an unbearable burden. Is there no place, then, for anticipating what life may bring? Of course we benefit from preparing for what may come. However, there is huge distance between living in constant angst, and responding to a concern for what is coming.
Last night a storm came through. In anticipation we placed outdoor chairs under cover and did all we could to prepare for wind and rain. That preparation was done in the here and now, and while preparing we sang the Name of God (or we could have sung, “row, row, row your boat!”), feeling joy in the activity. And when the storm came we felt we were wrapt in the warm protection of the Divine Presence. Then when cleaning up after the storm this early morning I also sang God’s Name, feeling joy in doing what needed to be done.
As Jesus of Nazareth asked, can you grow taller by anxious thought? We may need a shot of adrenaline now and then to accomplish some task, but constant anxiety is such an aweful waste. Let us learn to have God-experience here, now. Watch how the here and now God-experience lends a halo of peace and joy to both the past and the future. In this way the omnipresence of the Infinite glows from every nook and crany of your mind and life-experience. Now peace, love and joy are your constant and abiding companions through every moment of every day for your pilgrimage through life!