Well, hello there. It's Morgan Harper-Nichols here. Today's episode is a repeat episode that I am excited to share.

Again, I'm taking a short break, and I will be back later this month. Thank you so much for tuning in.

The idea of being present to the moment has become such a common phrase and even a cliche

to the point that it can feel meaningless.

However, perhaps the reason why this concept has become such a popular topic is not just

because it's an easy feel-good saying, but because it's incredibly

hard to do.

On a daily basis, there are millions of different things that can quickly pull us into focusing

on the past or the future.

Every day we're surrounded by people who've known us for weeks, months,

or years, or even decades. And the simplest thing that someone says in passing can take us to

an awkward moment or something that we don't want to remember from years ago. And when it comes

to the future, even a photograph of someone that we love

and respect doing something that we wish we could do can make us feel like we're not where we're

supposed to be and we should be further down the line. So with so many things that can pull us

quickly into the past or the future, what remains to pull us to the present moment?

There are many ways to answer this question, but I'd like to point to what I've learned from one of my favorite poets, Wendell Berry, in his poem, The Peace of Wild Things.

In this poem he talks about when the

despair of the world has grown on him. And he goes out into the wood, and in this poem, he describes

the woods in the way that you could only describe if you were present to the moment. And the poem ends with these words, for a time I rest in the grace of the world and am free.

And it's there in the peace of wild things that he finds that permission to just be free, to just be.

So I hope that this thought could be an invitation for you to discover or rediscover

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