Quotes About Presence

Sometimes they just sit. Sometimes one turns on a radio and they listen to music, or to the news, but they don't care about the actual news, just that the radio is issuing a steadyish sound whose particulars they do not have to follow to understand what the radio is actually telling them: life is being lived. No need to be a part of it as long as you know it's streaming.

The mind is off duty but the body is open.

You have time. Meaning don't use it, but pass through time in patience, waiting for something to come. Prepare for its arrival. Don't rush to meet it. Be a conduit.

All you can do is involve yourself totally in your own life, your own moment, Lonzi said.

And there you were," he said. "In your cotton-underweared splendor.

Floyd and Lloyd, his uncles by marriage, never spoke to each other. They were men of zero words to anyone, ever. They were men who lay watching TV, making women and children feel skittish and in trouble for existing.

Sometimes just being in someone's presence is strong medicine.

I suspect that the most basic and powerful way to connect with another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention. And especially if it's from the heart. When people are talking, there's no need to do anything but receive them. Just take them in. Listen to what they're saying. Care about it. Most times caring about it is even more important than understanding it.

Understanding the suffering is beyond me. Understanding the healing is, too. But in this moment, I am here. Use me.

Being in a hurry. Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. I cannot think of a single advantage I've ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all that rushing.

Must every action—every word and thought—recall Alena? Swimming, currents, beaches, exhibitions, artists, parties. How long until my bodily presence had half the substance her absence did?

Présente je vous fuis; absente, je vous trouve; Dans le fond des forêts votre image me suit

Just 'cause you feel it doesn't mean it's there

I'm composed largely of what the streets and rooms look like, of how to arrive 'just' here.

Now light sits in the chairs

The future is all around here.' It's a place, anyplace where we don't exist.

She hadn't seen the mayor come in, though she knew he was behind her somewhere. She could sense the heat of his gaze, her hair prickly, her neck warm. How thrilling it was to feel this way, rattled by his mere presence, wanting only to give in to his pull. But desire was awful, too, full of trapdoors and sharp hooks.

He looked around at the chaos of the jacked-up children and then back at his nervous daughter. "I believe I'll stay, if you don't mind." What if she did mind? What if the idea of him watching her for the next two hours made her more nervous than a turkey at Thanksgiving?

I remember that I'm invisible and walk softly so as not awake the sleeping ones. Sometimes it is best not to awaken them; there are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers.

Teresa witnesses to the fact that even if we are not fully attentive in our prayer, little by little, even imperfect prayer will change us. Simply "showing up" for prayer time evidences our desire to be with the Lord. Even though sometimes it seems that we are more there physically than spiritually, our desire allows Him to draw us closer.7

John states a very important principle: it is neither the presence nor the absence of things that indicate true detachment, but rather, the interior freedom of heart that puts its trust not in things—possessing or keeping what we already have, or longing for what we don't have—but rather in the Father's care.

Which of us can live uprightly and perfectly even for one hour, an hour free from fruitless talk and careless work?17

In essence, contemplative prayer is a communication with God that isn't simply our own mental or affective effort, but has at least some dimension of "givenness" by God, some infusion of light or love or presence that transcends our own efforts.

In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows.