Showing Up

Many things come our way in the course of a single day.

Today I've been thinking about what some of the Shamanic cultures call "Showing Up" or what Buddhists call "Being in the present". Being supple and flexible, bending without breaking like the willow tree. Moving with the currents of the River. Floating like a feather in the wind. Going with the proverbial flow.

All beautiful metaphors for Flexibility.

But what about all our plans? Schedules? Appointments?

Can we be present in the moment and in the flow while still showing up to our agreements?  Certainly. It's all in the way we look at things.  If, when opening our calendars to see what we have "on the books", we recoil when seeing that we have through our own choice packed our day full of activities, then we are constricting our natural energies, stopping the flow. If we instead notice that we have a very busy day ahead and greet our choices with ease, then we can move seemlessly between engagments. Yes, not all days flow so easily as clocks tick and people rush. We can however choose how we are going to respond to what the world grants us on a given day. We always get to choose.