Opening My Arms to the Holiness of the Moment
Mick Owens has been involved with Illuman for about 20 years, most recently with Illuman in Southwest Ohio. He experienced the deeper dive at MROP in 2008 at Pilgrim Park in Illinois. Engaging with men/brothers who are intent on being more whole and loving has been transformative. Mick has been married to Joanie for 55 years, has 3 adult children and 6 grandchildren, all of whom fill his heart. He is a retired English and Latin teacher, having taught in Chicago, Minnesota and Cincinnati for 37 years. He enjoys golf and continuing to live a life of love, wholeness and presence.
There is nothing to figure out about Practicing Presence. In fact, the less I try to figure it out, the better. Just do it, Mick. Even the most meager attempt to Practice Presence is worthwhile. Being patient, staying with the practice, is the process.
The Practice of Presence, for me, is a free fall into God’s loving hands. Several deep breaths prepare me to open my heart, relax my body, quiet my mind. Sometimes I walk into my practice and simply notice whatever surrounds me, an emerald green maple, a crimson cardinal, a field of dandelions, a cobalt blue sky, allowing the moment to enfold me into God’s gentle hands. My shoulders relax, my mind slows down. Sometimes the presence lasts a minute, maybe two, as I breathe in the quiet peace, the moment of awe, before my thinking brain drops a detail, a concern, a plan for my day. I accept this tangent; let it evaporate into the air. Then I take a couple more deep breaths and fall again into God’s hands. Sometimes my thinking brain lingers longer than I want, pulling me into the busyness of my life as I remember that I have a book due at the library or that I need to get an oil change for my car. Then I pause, express a prayer of gratitude for the moment when I was alive in God’s loving hands. Perhaps that’s enough.
At other times I may just sit, preferably by a window, taking several deep breaths, letting my shoulders relax. Then quietly, I let my body float as if on a raft, drifting softly down a stream. I open my imagination to images, smells and sounds as I slowly drift in the water, letting go of the rudder that I may want to grab to steer my raft, allowing the current to carry me wherever it will.
For much of my career, I was a teacher at La Salle High School in Cincinnati where I learned about St. John Baptiste de La Salle. He encouraged his followers to remember that we are always in God’s holy presence, even when we are busy with our work of the day. We had a practice to begin each of our classes with the sentence, “Let us remember that we are in the holy presence of God.” After beginning my classes with these words five or six times a day for thirty years, they became a mantra embedded deeply within me. I still often weave that reminder into my day as I go about my activities, such as when I awake in the morning, putting on a pot of coffee, turning on the ignition of my car or just waiting at a traffic light. A pause. Yes, I am always in God’s holy presence, a reminder to open my arms to the holiness of the moment.
