The Practice of Presence

I'm sitting in my living room admiring the blooms of my newly purchased peonies. What once were tightly wrapped buds are slowly opening to feathery aromatic flowers, pink and full of life.

Aufheben.

The beautiful german philosophy that a new state both negates the previous elements and preserves its essential truths or values.

In other words as the bud blooms, it becomes a blossom, but the essence of the bud is still there, both preserved and changed. Transcended.

And you can take it back further. How the bud was once a stem, that was once a seed, that was once the bloom of another flower ...

Sometimes I cling to the past, to who I once was. Sometimes I race toward the future, to be who I dream. But fighting reality makes me tired. The more I appreciate who I am now, the more my life fills with peace. One small moment at a time.

I surrender to the flow.

Everything has happened as it should.

And the future unfurls as it will.