It is, you know. Because everything is OK right now. Not in five minutes. Not in five seconds. Right now, as you read the message on the steps, it is. OK. Right?
This picture was taken in the lobby of the Ace Hotel when I was in New York a few months back. I found it on my iphone just now.
The wonderful Eckhart Tolle instructs, as an exercise in seeing the beauty of the present, to ask yourself, “what’s the issue right now?”. Not tomorrow, not in 30 minutes, not in 1 minute, not in one second from now. What’s the issue right now. Of course, you find yourself realising that there is no issue in the present. You just can’t conjure one. Only in the past and the future are there issues.
Try it. Um, like, now.
I think one of the kindest gestures you can proffer someone is to ask if they’re OK. I say this today, because it’s National RUOK Day. The premise, from watching Hugh below, is to simply reach out to someone and ask, “Are you OK?”. It’s geared at staving off suicide, and helping out someone struggling on their own.
I went through a rough patch about three years ago and my friend KJ would call me almost every day just to see if I was OK. I always said I was. Because in the instant that she asked me, I would be. That’s often how it works. Another friend Jacinta T has a habit of calling to “check in”. She would literally want an update on where I was at in life. And my mate Josh C does the same. He’ll get a feeling that something might be a bit awry with me and text or call or suggest we have a tea. It’s like he can smell my frazzledness across the suburbs.
We can all do this, I think. Smell someone’s frazzledness or sadness or loneliness or hard times from afar. You know when someone you haven’t seen for a bit will just pop into your mind and you’ll have this feeling that something strong is going on for them? If you call them, they’ll say, “Funny you should call…”.
The beautiful challenge for all of us is to act on our intuition. To pick up the phone and ask someone who comes to your minds’ eye, are you OK? There doesn’t have to be a problem implied. Just a desire to connect. And to bring both of you into the present moment.
Where everything is going to be alright.
