One day in Fiji, in the Namalé dining room, I sat in a cushy chair and comfortably overlooked a generous, green mountain range. In the distance, I saw the Koro Sea. A friend of mine and I were relaxing, and talked about a spiritual program session we had attended just hours before. The lecture was about being present. One of the keys to joyful living is to stop attempting to change everyone and just notice what is in front of us. We can never change a person, the monk had told us, we can only experience that person. And being fully engaged in the present means we don’t miss the beautiful experiences in life.
While that lesson sunk in, I looked at the lush landscape with appreciation. A Fijian man came from behind my chair, and tapped me on the shoulder. He pointed at the sky in front of me. “See it?” he said, with a toothless grin. “See what?” I asked, puzzled. I leaned forward in my chair, straining. I’d been a part of this view for over an hour. Maybe a dolphin had jumped out of the water! “It’s a rainbow,” he laughed, and at that moment, my eyes shifted upward. “It has been here for the last hour, we’ve never seen one last so long!”
There is an old saying about seeing the forest from the trees, and I realized that I had not been fully present. While I’d been enjoying the view, my mind was drifting: what were my kids doing back home? Was anybody feeding the dog? I’d been staring directly at a rainbow the entire time, but didn’t see it!
On your winter travels, especially your Journeys of the Spirit, be sure to take time to notice what’s right in front of you! On my journey to the Mayan Yucatan, we will relax and nourish ourselves with a sense of deep peace and plenty of blessings. Mark your calendars from January 9-15, 2011! Join us for spiritual teachings, spa treatments, yoga, sacred sites, and mala-making. I look forward to being with you! Click here to sign up!
