At Happy Hour last night, a visiting client asked me to give an example of a miracle I experienced from my presence practice.
I described a memorable moment at the beginning of my journey how I sat down on the front stoop of my beach house in Destin with the intended purpose of practicing being present. My goal was to make it to a minute without any thoughts.
I closed my eyes and summoned up my senses. When I felt ready I re-oped my eyes. About five seconds later, I had a thought. “Dang, I suck at this!”, my Ego proclaimed. It then prompted me to call it a day…….after five seconds! 😎
I resisted this resistance and decided to try again. I closed my eyes to ready myself for another try. This time, I focused on my breath and did not re-open my eyes until I was clear of thoughts. My Ego tried to enter my consciousness but its volume decreased with each passing second I patiently waited.
Once I could no longer hear my Ego as it faded into the distance, I slowly re-oped my eyes. The first thing I visually noticed was a beautiful butterfly right in front of me. As I appreciated it’s beauty my vision widened and I saw what must have been a dozen or so butterflies. They were all circling me.
I have no idea how much time passed while I appreciated the moment. My goal of a minute seemed naive in the presence of such beauty. Time did not exist or belong in this space. But once I was done, I did have a question for my inner-being and it was this:
Were the butterflies present the first time I opened my eyes, but I wasn’t conscious enough to see them?
My Ego tried to answer first, as it always seems to do, but it was wrong as usual. My soul knew the true answer. I had just experienced my first miracle from my newborn presence practice.
When I got done sharing this inspired, beautiful example of a miracle from presence, my client said, “I hate butterflies. I associate them with death!”
Bartender! I said, can we get another round please? We’re gonna be here awhile! 😎
