This is our last day reflecting on “The Ready Room” as a model and metaphor for how we live our lives in the various communities of which we are members. We have explore many aspects of what getting reading, preparing, readying and being readied for the variety of life’s events can mean to us. We have explored some skills and practices for getting ready, preparing, readying and being readied.
What strikes me through all of these days of reflection is that there are always days and situations on which and for which I simply have not been able to prepare, to get ready, to make ready. For some of us, this situation is the recurring nightmare of arriving at a final exam and suddenly realizing that we never attended the class, never studied, and now our “failure” will be exposed. What is left to us in those situations where we know we have not had time to prepare?
What is left is the present moment. What is left is the next inhale and exhale. What is left is the person and the event unfolding in front of us. What is left is choosing to be here, now. What is left is attention to what is arising and what is leaving. What is left is deep listening.
I will always be one who is trying to prepare for what I know is coming. There is care-taking and responsibility in that. But I am convinced that learning how to be in the present moment, finally, is the best preparation I can offer my own soul and the living earth and all her beings around me. Finally, getting ready is about right now.
Bob Patrick