Practicing Peace Through Presence

I am grateful that a long-time friend from St. Louis, Sharon, was able to visit me this past weekend. Because she is a talented artist, I asked her to help me decorate some sugar cookies for an open house for my new office. As with any artistic endeavor, it was an exercise in being present and breathing in the spirit (the inspiration) of the moment.

As with Buddhist mandalas that are painstakingly crafted from colored sand and then dumped into the ocean or a river upon completion, my cookies will not be long for this world. After completing their purpose for being—that is, offering Sharon and me the opportunity to practice presence together and helping me offer hospitality to my guests—they will be consumed and will be no more. Yet this loss need not be a cause of sorrow, because the next moment of life will offer its own opportunity to practice presence and hospitality. If I cling to one moment, the gifts of the next moment will be lost.

This morning the community sang a song with the refrain, “Make me an instrument of your peace.” It occurs to me that when we practice presence by living in the moment and then letting it go, we are an instrument of peace. In this way, we are modeling trust that God will be present in all the moments to come, so we don’t have to cling to what has been or what we are experiencing now.

Rabindranath Tagore said, “The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.” When we live in each moment, the Holy Spirit moment, we too have time enough to experience the wonder of life with God and to be an instrument of God’s peace.