It is not so much exhausting to realize that trying not to be in the Here and Now is futile. We are here anyway. On a soul level we have even chosen to be here on planet earth. Rather, it takes a lot of strength and energy to mentally and emotionally be somewhere else in order to stay here. The ecstasy of suffering, we suffer to be closer to the seemingly divine, to heaven, to suffer often means to live, to be here. At least, that is what we believe on many unconscious levels.

The exhaustion is that we never even get close to holism when we try and run away, inside as well as outside, but we have been taught and we believe that running away from ourselves and escaping what is here is what brings us closer to the supposed oneness, because everything here on earth seems to be one thing above all – not – one.

Where are we when we are here, but yet not here? In our world of separateness, of differences, of should-be’s, in a world full of manmade, unnatural rules and laws, created to structure us and make us function (with each other)? Our senses are honed to underpin our separation, rather than bring us closer together. Or do you see what I see? Do you hear what I hear?

Are you in the realm of blocking out, pushing away the negative and what is emotionally distressing you? In the realm of an invented reality where everything seems to be as you imagine it? In a misunderstood spirituality, in which you only need to imagine something, wish for something, spell something out, hoping for it to become true?

Or do you rather just feel the heaviness, darkness, the powerlessness, the end and the hopelessness, whether something will turn out to be good again in this world? That life itself seems to be meaningless, bearing in mind all the personal and global problems we have? That there is hardly any time and space to simply enjoy a moment of happiness, unrestricted, and without shame and guilt?

Can you do both? Everything that is in front of and within you, just perceive it as it is. To live the beautiful, the good, the love, the joy and at the same time be aware of death, the end, the constant change, the certainty that there is no eternity – somewhere out there – where nothing ever changes.

In what ways do you engage in the Here and Now?

Why?

© Peggy Vogt 2023