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Mountain Ancestors Grove, ADF

A Year of Contemplation

Stay Focused on the Present (Day 170)

6/19/2019

 
Picture
Image by John Hain from Pixabay

​In my day-to-day life, I have the chance to talk with a lot of folx about various and sundry examples of human struggle and suffering. I’m blessed to hear each of their stories, and sit with them during their hard days, sometimes bearing witness so they are not alone, sometimes offering counsel if they ask. I get to hear about moments of mindfulness and many more of mindlessness. Really, in truth, what I get to do is share in the humanity of my community, and what I’ve learned in my work is this: privilege exists AND everyone struggles.

So many challenges befall us while we’re just minding our own business, tryin’ to get through life, tryin’ to get to tomorrow… shit, sometimes just tryin’ to get out of bed. The scope of life’s challenges can be overwhelming, and it becomes even worse when we can’t get out of our own heads, and after dwelling on it all, we find ourselves in the space of inaction, where we are trapped between past failures and a hopeless future. We’ve all been there, and we’ll all be there again. But remember, if you’re sitting here reading this, you made it through. 

OK… sure, we made it through. 

Looking back at those hard times, however, we often wonder how the heck we made it through. We wonder what miracle happened that we got from there to here. How did we survive the impossible odds, and antagonistic circumstances? Well, as usual, Rev. Badger is gonna burst the bubble of miracle and magic by giving you the answer: 

You were busier than a one-legged person in an ass-kickin’ contest, and didn’t even notice you were doing gettin’ through. 

You had your hands full being busy with THE PRESENT MOMENT, and likely didn’t have time to worry about the whole scope of a situation crushing down upon you. In that moment, you made it through by being present with what was in front of you. In the middle of the hurricane, you were at it’s eye. See, each moment, each blip of the present, is an opportunity for you to be completely present. In each moment, we won’t have the power to get rid of those greater circumstances beyond our control, but we do have the power to affect that which is right before our eyes. 

An incredible amount of stress comes from thinking we can control things that are, in reality, beyond our control. The answer to that is not to go deeper into plotting the past and scheming the future, but to simply do what’s in front of us. That’s it.

Keep your heads down, focus on the moment without worrying about past ones or future ones, do what’s in front of you, and gods be good, I’ll… 

(... see y’all tomorrow.) 

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    About the Blog

    Awakening the desire to explore Stoicism, and how it relates to his existing beliefs, Rev. William committed to working through the text, The Daily Stoic, a year-long journey to awaken the Stoic mind. 
    How things are structured can be found in the first post. 

    About the Author

    Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, Rev. William attended Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado where in 2007 he graduated with a degree in Religious Studies, minoring in Psychology. Currently residing in Longmont, CO, he is one of the Priests and founder of Mountain Ancestors Grove.  He spends his time playing mandolin (and some guitar), writing, engaging in LGBTQIA+ advocacy and education, community service, and sharing a larger vision of how a polytheist perspective can lead to greater human understanding, acceptance, and gods be good, peace. 

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