P.E.A.C.E

"There is nothing to do but be."

     Living in the present brings the one thing most people spend their lives striving to achieve: peace. Relaxing into the present moment puts you in the mental and physical state of calm, and quite. If you are in the moment doing whatever you are doing, then there is no time to examine the gap between your expectation and the reality of how things are, or between where you are and where you think you should be. You are too busy being in the moment to analyze it and find fault with it.
     One of my favourite movie is BEING THERE, in which Peter Sellers plays a lovable idiot servant Chauncey Gardner, Simple-minded Chauncey lives his life only in the present moment, with absolutely no awareness of anything other than what he sees before him. When an odd twist of circumstances trnsports him from his beloved garden, which he spent most of his life tending, into a position advising presidents and powerful business moguls, Chauncey merely offers the wisdom he gleaned from tending the flowers and soil. Of course, the rest of the world interprets his simple statement as wise analogies, and he is hailed as one of the greatest minds of those times.
     Chauncey is peaceful in his simplicity. Life is simple and easy for this man, to whom past and future references have no meaning. He is focused completely on the present moments.
     Many of us race through our lives, always on our way somewhere. If you ask 10 drivers on their morning commute what they are doing, 9 of them most likely respond, "going to work." The 10th one-the one who responds, "driving my car" - is the one who has learned the lesson of present-moment peace. Chances are he does not arrive at work any later than the other nine who spent their commute focused on where they were headed as opposed to where they were . He probably even enjoyed the ride.
     Of course, this dosen't mean that we float through our life, completely detached from the past and blind to the future. Only that if we pause from time to time to be fully rooted in the moment and feel the peace that results, that's it .