I got a vision of starting to climb up a mountain – a mountain I’ve seen in previous visions and something I knew was coming. As I started there was a nice little trail circling around the edge, easy enough to comfortably hike. But no, not for me. The Lord comes up and says, “Let’s go up this way,” and guides my hands to small crevices and rocks on the mountain face to begin to scale up the side.

“Oh no, Lord.  Really?”

“Really,” he responds.  “You can do it, because I’m here with you in it.”

“Why not just walk along the well-formed trail?”

“This is your path, this is greater joy for you.”

So up the side of the mountain we go. Me doing things I never dreamed possible, slowly, carefully. Before long, we get to a small ledge and the Lord helps me up to it. We sit and rest. I can see the well-honed trail below. People are easily passing by on it.

“Wouldn’t it be better to just walk that road, Lord?  We would certainly move a little faster.”

“Faster? Getting to the end? Is that your focus? There’s more to life. Getting to the end quickly is not your purpose, not your reason for life. Sit and rest with me.”

So we sit. We rest. Then my mind does what it so often does when I’m sitting and resting, trying to enter into meditation. I imagine things. I get so rested that my body loses all tension and all form. It starts to slide and would simply drift off the ledge, down out of safety onto the well-honed trail below. From the corner of my eye I catch the Lord’s glance. No words, no shaking of the head, but his glance says it all.

His eyes say, “Really?”  It’s an endearing look, with one eyebrow raised, with love and appreciation for me and even for my awkwardness. He doesn’t need to say anything. I sit back up, straighten myself, and wait.

“If you were on the path below, you would miss so much,” the Lord says to me. “It’s not about getting somewhere. I want you to see and appreciate the moments you do have. Be alive in the moment in which you are living.”

“I get it,” I say. Well, I don’t really get it because if I did, he wouldn’t have to keep telling me this. But for right now, for this moment, I get it. Then I take in a deep breath and the awareness of the heat surrounding me as I sit in the 126 degree sauna. It feels wonderful. I sit and soak it in with appreciation and gratitude as I realize that what were beads of sweat have now turned into streams rolling down my skin. Ah yes. My attention is on my senses enjoying the heat of the sauna. I am aware of just the present moment.

I look forward to this living in the present becoming a way of life for me.