Befriending the moment of Now

I've shared this beautiful Kwan Yin, created by Anita Feng, with you before, but I've placed her here again because I felt as if she were speaking to me this morning.

I was sitting at my dining room table reading Eckhart Tolle's New Earth, and came upon this passage:

"Once you have reached a certain level of consciousness, you are able to decide what kind of relationship you want to have with the present moment.  Do I want the present moment to be my friend or my enemy?

The present moment is inseparable from life, so you are really deciding what kind of a relationship you want to have with life.  Once you have decided you want the present moment to be your friend, it is up to you to make the first move: Become friendly toward it, welcome it no matter in what disguise it comes, and soon you will see the results.  Life becomes friendly toward you; people become helpful, circumstances cooperative.  One decision changes your entire reality.  But that one decision you have to make again and again and again -- until it becomes natural to live in such a way."

So I sat there, hands folded, looking out through the living room and across the water, listening to the birds, watching the loon dip for fish, befriending the Now, and this Kwan Yin was just off to the left in my field of vision.

A friend had come to visit late yesterday afternoon, and had remarked upon how lovely the little statue looked, glowing in the late afternoon sun, so I was more aware of her than I usually am.  And as I looked at her, I felt her as a kind of Madonna, but with empty arms held out as if to receive me in the Divine Embrace; as if -- in stopping the relentless mental hopping from past to future and befriending the moment of Now -- I had stepped into her arms and was cradled there in love.

I suspect there's room there for you, too...