My wife, Pat, officially retired today from her work as a children’s librarian. She feels she might be lost for awhile but my memory of retirement was I soon forgot all the hassles of work. If you live in the present fully than the past disappears quickly and there is not much time for future. I heard on public radio today an interview with a person who had a high stress job. All his life he had only a few nights where it was hard to sleep. The interview person asked him how he did it. He said he first try to live fully in the present and realized he could not change the past and future was not of concern. Second he said that when he bed he said the rosary, a repetitive Catholic Prayer that uses beads. Often at night he has fallen asleep before the rosary was finished.

I used to check out my I phone or maybe read a newspaper or magazine in bed. Recently I stopped doing this and when I go to bed I try to clear my mind by using a repetitive prayer like the “Jesus Prayer”, and with the effect of the medicine I take, fall to sleep soon. But the difference for me is that I wake up less at night, especially on days when my mind is clear.

Learning to live fully in the presence takes a discipline of mind, often involving some form of meditation. Clearing one’s mind a few times a day does not take much time but makes more time since when you live fully in the present more gets done.

I was driving with a young man today who I do know too well. He mentioned he had a lot on his mind as rational for not talking so much as we were going someplace. On the way back, after an experience with someone that is fully present to life, he started to tell me more about his life, his dreams and hopes. He called the person we experienced, a saint. Being present in the moment is what saints are all about.

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