Quotes About Presence

By definition, soul evades the cage of definition. It is the indefinable essence of a person's spirit and being. It can never be touched and yet the merest hint of its absence causes immediate distress.

the ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self, the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another

You have a moment in the day, as Blake said, that Satan (the strategic mind, worried about being 'productive') cannot find.

The ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self, the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.

THE BELL AND THE BLACKBIRD (excerpt) The sound of a bell still reverberating, or a blackbird calling from a corner of a field. Asking you to wake into this life or inviting you deeper to one that waits. Either way takes courage, either way wants you to be nothing but that self that is no self at all, wants you to walk to the place where you find you already know how to give every last thing away.

Being after, being alongside, being near [près] would appear as different modes of being, indeed of being-with.

A teenager stood there. Right in the middle of my living room, a space that had been proudly teenager-free for years.

George Foreman looks as if he might have organically appeared out of the very ground around the church.

When there are no words, know that the silences are carrying the thoughts and prayers of all who love you.

The ego camouflages itself like a fox born and raised in a hen house. Its only worry is that you fail to notice its presence every so often and start acting without fear

Always remember that night is the absence of light rather than the presence of darkness

I Woz 'ere! The most profound 3 words in language.

One of the best ways to recharge is by simply being in the presence of art. No thoughts, no critiques. Just full-on absorption mode.

I wasn't the only one who wished he was around more.... The trade-off we had to be content with was that our dad was Dean Martin.

For where thou art, there is the world itself.

If you don't participate, you're just taking up oxygen. (Bunny) Life is a banquet. Approach it with hunger. (Chuck)

Someone walking toward you is such a simple, happy-to-be-alive thing.

More than anything, I like just being there while he works, doing what he knows to do, in his own place.

That night, after we turned out the light, the red digital numbers of the bedside clock stared me down. I tried to ignore it, but of all household objects, bedside clocks are the most insistent, more than beeping refrigerators and door alarms, more than kitchen timers and even blaring radios. It's the strong silent types that get you.

When people ask me how I am I tell them......"I'm present

It's great to be here.

Live in the now and the how will take care of itself.

As long as you're with you, that's all that matters.

Don't look. See.Don't think. Feel.Don't hear.Listen.Pay attentionMiracles really do happen every day