There's an old saying that goes.
The past is history.
The future is a mystery.
But today is a gift.
And that's why it's called the present.
And the present is,
Of course,
Always here.
It's always available.
But you must be willing,
I think.
To unwrap it.
If not for unwrapping the present.
It's still here,
But it stays wrapped.
And specifically it stays wrapped in concepts,
And ideas,
And judgments,
And beliefs,
And opinions,
And ideas.
Words.
So one way to unwrap the gift of the present moment.
Is to let go of the word label that you use to describe something.
So I'll use a few examples,
And I'd like you to imagine and experience yourself and me unwrapping the gift that is here.
By releasing the word label that we use to describe this thing.
So the first one.
This is called a blackberry.
And I.
.
.
That's helpful to have that word to describe it.
But if it remains a blackberry,
It remains my idea of what this actually is.
So what is it really?
It is a gift.
It is miraculous.
I can notice it in a completely new way,
And I can also realize the way in which this is not like any other quote-unquote BlackBerry I have ever had before.
And it has a lot of different colors,
Actually,
And textures,
And little pokey things.
And the only way to really receive the gift of this is.
.
.
And my experience of the BlackBerry.
Is completely a function of my presence,
And my attention for it.
Very often we are eating our thoughts as opposed to eating our food.
So that could be one way to experiment.
Noticing what you're eating,
Noticing the label,
The word you use to describe what you're eating and possibly letting go of that.
And experiencing it directly.
And that's like unwrapping and receiving the gifts.
Of what we call a blackberry or anything that you might eat.
There's also the gift of water.
And it's not really water.
Water is a word.
W-A-T-E-R,
It's a sound,
It's not this.
So how do I unwrap and receive the gift of this?
I let go of the label for now.
And I directly experience what it is that we call water.
And you can do this with anything.
Maybe a tree.
If you see a tree out there,
It's not really a tree.
Again,
That's a helpful word that we have to describe it and label it.
But that's not what it really is.
So if you see a tree,
You can unwrap it of this conceptual wrapping paper that is the thinking mind,
And receive the gift of freedom.
This tree.
Certainly you can do so with another person.
And maybe with someone that you see all the time,
They might easily get wrapped up in this wrapping paper of your idea of them.
And then maybe on the deepest level,
Blackberry.
There's the gift.
Of unwrapping yourself.
Can you feel what that is like maybe to soften or loosen the bow?
That constricts you,
That keeps you.
You know,
In the identity of Charles,
For example,
And all the stories and the pressures and the insecurities and desires and all these things.
They're necessary to a certain degree to hold the present together.
But if the present exists just to exist as a present,
Then it's defeating the purpose of why it's here in the first place,
Which is to be open.
And to be shared.
So what's it like to unwrap the gift of you?
To be less filled with the labels and the ideas and all the stuff that wraps you up and to just unwrap yourself.
For a moment.
That is a gift you can experience again and again and again every day.
And in any new moment,
You can unwrap yourself and unwrap the gift of whatever it is that you might be experiencing right now.
So I'll close here by unwrapping the gift of the singing bowl.
Of course,
It's not really the singing bowl.
Those are words to describe this,
Just like I am not Charles,
Ultimately.
When I am not Charles and the singing bowl is not the singing bowl,
What am I and what is this?
We are the same thing,
When you look closely enough.
So here we can close by possibly directly receiving the gift of what it is that we call the singing bowl,
Unwrapping it.
And maybe even becoming.
The sound.
Until it dissolves.
And reveals whatever is the next gift.
Available to you.
In three,
Two,
One.
Unwrapping the gift.
The present.
The End
