YouTube: The Magic Moment
Step 8: I seek to be fully present in this now moment, the only place I can be.
When I was growing up, we used to play the game known as tether ball. A soccer ball is suspended to a pole by a small rope. One end of the pole is planted in the ground. Two players compete to hit the ball and get it to wrap the rope around the pole. Each player tries to block the success of the other. The winner is the one who succeeds in wrapping the rope around the pole first.
This game came to mind as I was thinking of the 8th step. Someone has rightfully said, whatever gets your attention gets you. Our attention is a lot like the tether ball that is constantly slammed in different directions by competing forces. We can find ourselves in a fierce competition between a matter of concern and our need to resolve it.
Pulling our attention out of this game is the key to finding peace of mind. We’re not suggesting that we ignore life’s issues that require resolution. A large part of spiritual recovery is found in our ability know the difference between our spiritual center and a mental and emotional disturbance.
If the tether ball is left undisturbed, it naturally unwraps the rope and comes to rest against the pole. The pole, the unchanging center of the game, is like the now moment. We make a conscious decision to stop allowing the ball of our attention to be slammed back and forth, and simply let it go. Doing so, we come into the now moment and rediscover our center of power.
It’s amazing how this simple act of letting go can bring new clarity to our thinking. Our center of power truly resides in this now moment, the only place we can actually be. As we observe the activity of our attention, we can learn to recognize when it is engaged in frivolous pursuits. This 8th step helps us become mindful of this important aspect of our spiritual recovery:
I seek to be fully present in this now moment, the only place I can be.