The acceptance of the present moment

Yesterday my daughter came home from school - frustrated.Things didn't work out the way she had hoped they would.She went upstairs and logged on to the Internet.That did not help her to get out of her stuck-state.She then came downstairs once more and tried to change her poor mood by watching TV.That did not help her either.

Finally she grabbed our cat,sat down on the couch with her and started to pet and caress the one year old animal....and since the cat was reluctant at first and wanted to jump off the sofa - it took awhile until the two had bonded and then settled into a very,very relaxing "dance"...The cat purred,the daughter caressed and made soothing sounds,the cat stretched and responded and my daughter started to breathe deeper - and ever so slowly both became more and more present and even facial muscles started to relax and to flatten...what a nice and positive change of state.

I watched both of them from a distance pretending to read the daily paper at our dining table and there was a certain tenderness emanating from the two - and when it was time for them to let-go of each other - my daughter got up, smiled and asked me kindly if I wanted to join her for some tea and "Stollen".

So what is the lesson here? Now that I am studying the teachings of Eckhart Tolle I would say stillness arises when we learn to inwardly align with the "drama" of what this very moment has to offer - to say yes to the "is-ness" first ( "I am in a bad mood - things didn't work out" ) and then to proceed from there but now on a deeper level to make the needed changes.

Needless to say - my professors did NOT teach me these things while I was at college in Oregon - or should I better say: I was NOT ready for that type of message - and as far as I know we still don't teach this at my present school either - and I wonder if there is even a subject ( ein Unterrichtsfach ) where it would be appropriate to teach these insights.

And I guess I needed "the time" - these almost 40 years - that separate the above photo and the one on my post of Sept. 25 - to finally begin to truly hear and experience this wisdom - and I can only hope that my students will take less time to experiment with the workings of their Minds.