Read an Excerpt
Being Present
A Book of Daily Reflection
By David Kundtz Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
Copyright © 2015 David Kundtz
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60925-975-4
CHAPTER 1
Part 1
Spring and Youth
March
Nature and Beauty
March 1
Spring is nature's way of saying, "let's party!"
ROBIN WILLIAMS
It's the season of new life and new hope.
No matter what has gone before.
Now is the time to have a party — whatever that might look like for you.
Just be sure to have some fun.
March 2
Some monarch butterflies — they're beautiful with the black and deep orange wings — fly up to 2,500 miles to get out of the cold weather and hibernate.
That's a long way to go to keep warm.
Imagine a butterfly traveling 2,500 miles.
This amazing planet holds so many mysteries ...
March 3
If people did not love one another, I really don't see what use there would be in having any spring
VICTOR HUGO, Les Miserables
So spring, says Victor Hugo, is for encouraging people to love one another?
What is there about the relationship between spring and the human being that makes a young person's fancy turn to thoughts of love?
Springtime — love — you. Put them all together.
March 4
Some people walk in the rain; others just get wet.
ROGER MILLER
It all depends on your attitude.
In your mind's eye, imagine yourself out in the rain.
How do you want to be in that rainy moment? Rehearse it now.
Live it when the rain comes.
March 5
What a strange thing!
to be alive
beneath cherry blossoms.
KOBAYASHI ISSA
Why is it strange?
What picture do Issa's words form in your mind?
Look at that picture for a moment.
Then let it fade ...
Close your eyes ...
March 6
The love of the body of man or woman balks account, the body itself balks account,
That of the male is perfect, and that of the female is perfect.
WALT WHITMAN, "I Sing the Body Electric"
Bring your awareness to your perfect body — overlooking for now the possibly various ways it is not perfect — and see the beauty!
The beauty!
March 7
Youth is, after all, just a moment, but it is the moment, the spark, that you always carry in your heart.
RAISA GORBACHYOVA
Some believe and teach that the person you are at ten years old — your likes, dislikes, beliefs, assumptions, and so on — is the person that you become for life. Thus, the values and events of the world during the year you were ten will give you insight into yourself.
What was going on in the world the year you were ten?
Is that you?
March 8
The landscape belongs to the person who looks at it ...
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
So much,
of so much value and beauty,
of so much grandeur and excellence,
... is free.
Picture your favorite freebies.
March 9
Look deep into nature and you will understand everything better.
ALBERT EINSTEIN
The words "deep into nature" imply time spent looking.
What "nature" would you like to look at more deeply?
Then, just go and look.
March 10
From the poet e. e. cummings:
sweet spring is your time is my time is our time for springtime is lovetime and viva sweet love
There's that theme again.
Ah, well, why fight it?
How does "viva sweet love" fit into your life?
March 11
We have to get back to the beauty of just being alive in this present moment.
MARY MCDONNELL
So, really, there's a creative statement of the theme of this whole book.
Mary McDonnell is a successful film, stage, and television actress. Those are fields from which one does not necessarily expect an insight into mindfulness, right? Indeed, the stereotypical understanding of celebrity life is of the fast-moving, what's-next, and I-don't-have-time variety, right?
What a nice surprise.
Do you too have surprises?
March 12
The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God.
ANNE FRANK
I have been aware of this quote from Anne Frank for many years. Yet, every time I read it, I am amazed and full of awe. How could a girl of twelve or thirteen, living in fear and hiding from the Nazis for two years, have the insight, grace, and maturity to make such a confident and wise statement (among many others)?
She — and so many others we know nothing of — is a testament to the nobility of the human spirit at any age.
One feels gratitude. What else?
March 13
If you do something that you're proud of, that someone else understands, that is a thing of beauty that wasn't there before — you can't beat that.
TELLER
Recall a moment when you were proud of something you did, said, were part of ...
"That is a thing of beauty ... that wasn't there before." But it is now and always will be.
No, you can't beat that.
March 14
Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet And the winds long to play with your hair.
KHALIL GIBRAN
Perhaps the earth's delight comes from the fact that you are both of the same stuff and it recognizes you.
Your dancing feet ...
Your hair blown by its wind.
March 15
Beware the Ides of March ...
... are the words Shakespeare put in the mouth of the soothsayer, warning Julius Caesar of his impending death.
The middle of March is as good a time as any to contemplate death. The more at peace you can become with your own death, the more you will be a peaceful and mindful person in life.
But now, simply notice your life-giving breath — in and out ...
March 16
Beauty is truth, truth beauty — that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
JOHN KEATS, "Ode on a Grecian Urn"
It seems to me the only way to understand this is in utter simplicity — to look for no nuanced distinctions, no philosophical insights.
"What you see is what you get and it's all beautiful?" Or maybe not ...
March 17
Sure and you've got to keep your own spirits up, for there's no one else will do that for you!
JACLYN MORIARTY
Keeping your spirits up means keeping your mind in the moment.
(So much of suffering is the anticipation of it.)
So sometime, dance an Irish jig.
Then, just be still.
March 18
The poet and naturalist Edward Abbey offers these words:
There is beauty, heartbreaking beauty, everywhere.
"Heartbreaking beauty." What's that? Can beauty break your heart?
And it's everywhere ... this beauty.
Do we need to watch out?
March 19
Sylvia Plath, often a dark poet, gives us these joyful words:
I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery — air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, "This is what it is to be happy."
This seems to describe a moment of insight, of happiness ... which can often happen in an unexpected moment, like the inhaling of a breath (and air, mountains, trees, and people).
March 20
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
MARGARET ATWOOD
Gardening is a wonderful way to be in the moment.
To be grounded.
Of the earth.
Can you imagine a way to get involved with the dirt of the earth?
Imagine it.
March 21
There are about as many molecules in a thimbleful of water as there are thimblefuls of water in all the oceans of the Earth.
CHET RAYMO
Do you — as I — have a difficult time wrapping your mind around that?
Nevertheless it's true.
So much beyond our imagining! So much!
Imagine ...
March 22
I can calculate the number of thimblefuls of water in the sea, but I have no way of knowing how many galaxies there are in the universe ... or even how many universes might exist.
CHET RAYMO
Maybe read that again. Then:
... from contemplating universes
to placing yourself in this moment right now ...
In this little dot of a place, here ...
It can help with perspective.
March 23
Una de las cosas más agradables de la vida: ver cómo se filtra el sol entre las hojas.
One of the most pleasurable things of life: to see how the sun filters through the leaves.
MARIO BENEDETTI
Ah simplicity!
I recall once when sun filtered through leaves gave me peace.
Can you? — or some similar natural event?
Watch for sun through leaves this spring.
March 24
Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
It might help in heeding this Emersonian advice to recall that we are indeed part of nature — so the leap to patience feels a bit closer.
Pace: the rate of speed one goes through life.
Yours?
March 25
This is from Mark Twain:
It's spring fever.
That is what the name of it is.
And when you've got it, you want — oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!
So many comments about spring deal with this theme: the longing of our hearts. For a moment, just be with that feeling ...
... or recall it. After all, it is spring.
"You want it so!"
March 26
It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.
LEO TOLSTOY
Think of instances when the beautiful is not good ...
... and the good is not beautiful.
Then bring to mind a happy moment when they do come together.
March 27
Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
JOHN RUSKIN
Well, I can think of times when it would be hard not to call the weather bad:
Katrina, Sandy?
This brings to mind an old Swedish saying: There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.
So what's the weather right now? Good? Bad? Can you dress for it?
March 28
Early youth is a baffling time.
BRUCE CATTON
When you were young, do you remember thinking "How am I going to figure all this out?!"
So, how did you?
Or did you?
Or are you, like me, still figuring it out?
March 29
Sculptors, poets, painters, musicians — they're the traditional purveyors of Beauty. But it can as easily be created by a gardener, a farmer, a plumber, a careworker.
CHARLES DE LINT
Oh yes! Oh yes!
Has Canadian novelist de Lint hit upon an idea for our times?
Where is beauty for you?
Who creates beauty in your life?
In whose life are you the creator of beauty?
March 30
Pablo Picasso said:
It takes a long time to become young.
And Mae West added:
You're never too old to become younger.
Is youth mostly a state of mind — you're only as old as you feel?
I think the answer to that is yes and no.
Your yeses and noes?
March 31
Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
FRANZ KAFKA
So there's old and there's "old." How do you make the distinction?
Still want to see beauty?
Of course you do!
Goodbye, March, and on to April.
April
Relationships and Sex
April 1
Here cometh April again, and as far as I can see the world hath more fools in it than ever.
CHARLES LAMB
Fools. Suffer them gladly? Avoid them as much as possible? Occasionally join them?
In any event, please, let's not lose the grace to laugh at ourselves.
April 2
This is from Walt Whitman's "To You."
Let us two walk together aside from the rest;
Now we are together privately ...
Come! Tell me the whole story,
Tell me what you would not tell your brother, wife, husband, or physician.
Intimacy.
It brings you into the here and now, perhaps like nothing else.
There are many ways to create intimacy, like sharing a secret.
Think of other ways.
April 3
Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Ah, friends! In so many ways they make us who we are.
And of course, we in some way make them who they are.
Such responsibilities.
Such opportunities.
April 4
We are all born sexual creatures, thank God, but it's a pity so many people despise and crush this natural gift.
MARILYN MONROE
What most strikes me about these words is the source — a national sex symbol.
But of course, after the "despising" and the "crushing" she was, in the end, just Norma Jean, like you and me.
So, no despising, no crushing, please.
April 5
The weather here is windy, balmy, sometimes wet. Desert springtime, with flowers popping up all over the place, trees leafing out, streams gushing down from the mountains. Great time of year for hiking, camping, exploring, sleeping under the new moon and the old stars. At dawn and at evening we hear the coyotes howling with excitement — mating season.
EDWARD ABBEY
These simple, descriptive words from a devoted desert advocate and writer show both observation and appreciation, and between the words, love.
He loved the land, especially the desert Southwest.
Do you love some piece of land?
April 6
Le cœur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point.
The heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing of.
BLAISE PASCAL
This is perhaps one of the most quoted sayings in the Western world.
Why, do you suppose?
Because it's true? Yes, yes, of course.
But what else?
April 7
Youth is a silly, vapid state, Old age with fears and ills is rife; This simple boon I beg of Fate: A thousand years of Middle Life.
CAROLYN WELLS
Well, maybe not a thousand — but a few more years in the middle would be nice.
You've been around the block a few times, and can still walk briskly.
April 8
The sexual embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer.
MARCUS AURELIUS
Of course, it's been compared to a lot more than that.
Can you choose a comparison — a simile or metaphor — for "the sexual embrace"?
Think on it a bit and see what you come up with.
April 9
When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth.
JESS C. SCOTT
It's really a beautiful thing to say:
"My name is safe in your mouth."
The words are built on such intimacy and trust.
Be blessed if they can be yours — or can be said of your mouth.
April 10
April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, "Sonnet 98"
Here's the whole first stanza from Shakespeare's sonnet:
From you have I been absent in the spring,
When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim,
Hath put a spirit of youth in everything,
That heavy Saturn laughed and leaped with him.
Seek that spirit in this April, "proud-pied in all his trim!"
April 11
Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.
OSCAR WILDE
Everything in the world, Oscar? Or are you perhaps given to embellishment and hyperbole?
But then we expect that from you — and a lot of things are indeed about sex, right? Like what?
But maybe don't spend too much time on that question ...
April 12
The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
CARL JUNG
Who has transformed you?
And thus, have you transformed?
Makes for interesting reverie.
April 13
I am well aware that for some, love and passion do not always follow the traditional path.
AMANDA QUICK
People are who they are.
Your approval and encouragement
or my disapproval and condemnation
change nothing,
but can add to conflict and pain
or to harmony and peace.
April 14
"Why is it," he said, one time, at the subway entrance, "I feel I've known you so many years?"
"Because I like you," she said, "and I don't want anything from you."
RAY BRADBURY, Fahrenheit 451
"I like you."
What a strong, clear statement!
Combine it with "I don't want anything from you."
Sounds like a good formula for friendship.
April 15
The wages of sin are death, but by the time taxes are taken out, it's just sort of a tired feeling.
PAULA POUNDSTONE
Ah, taxes.
What controversies!
What bitter complaints!
What anger!
You and taxes: what's the relationship?
April 16
Love me when I least deserve it, because that's when I really need it.
SWEDISH PROVERB
Whether or not we have expressed this sentiment, I'll bet we've all felt it sometime in our life.
Indeed, is love something that is deserved, or just there? Does it happen on its own and then be given freely, often without understanding why or wherefore?
Ah, love ...
April 17
Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.
J. K. ROWLING
At least with an enemy who attacks, there is engagement, acknowledgment, no matter how negative. But with indifference, the soul withers; with neglect, life stagnates and dies.
It can be devastating.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Being Present by David Kundtz. Copyright © 2015 David Kundtz. Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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