Inspiration: Being present

I have had some great conversations with my friend Maryam over the last two days about being present. We are constantly being bombarded with information, tweets, facebook posts, emails, texts. It is information overload. How do you remain present to the people you are with when you are being bombarded with distractions?

" Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater amount of intelligent people or gifted people, but for deep people."

Richard J. Foster

 I make room for quiet in my life. I want to develop an interior life and a depth of personhood. I have special places that I go in Peterborough where I can be quiet. I have a rock in Jackson park, a bench by the Rotary trail, a gazebo in the Ecology garden. This is where I go to pray and think.

What do I mean about an interior life. I mean that I think about who I am becoming, about how my life is going. If something is bothering me I take the time to think and pray it through instead of filling in the silence with noise. What do I mean by a depth of personhood? I want to be someone who isn't shallow, who thinks deeply about things.

What does this have to do with being present? I think it has a lot to do with it. If your interior life is in chaos how can you sit and listen to a friend? How can you be present when you are constantly checking your phone? If you don't have a depth of personhood how can you talk about what is really going on with you?

Just some thoughts.....