What’s here now?

“Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.”—Simone Weil

If you happened to read my last book, you know I’m a fan of Byron Katie. I’ve attended her Nine-Day School for the Work. I interviewed her for Ego’s Playbook and well, basically I worship the ground she walks on.

I recently heard her tell a story that absolutely torpedoed my mind. And that’s saying a lot since I’m a longtime collector of “You are never going to believe this” stories.

Money falling out of the sky?  Check.

Finding a lost key in an ocean? But, of course.

Being summoned to Ecuador through dreams? How else would a medicine man with no phone or email contact you?

But this story, nearly impossible to buy if you live in the standard materialist reality, demonstrates what all those sages and gurus mean when they suggest “being here now.”  Being anywhere else is ultimately self-limiting.

Anyway, Katie arrived home after a vacation with her family only to open the door and discover that all their possessions were gone—jewelry, furniture, antique guns, pictures and family albums. The neighbors, who saw a moving van pull into the driveway, assumed the family was moving.

Katie’s husband and kids freaked out. I mean, how dare they take our precious things?

Katie, on the other hand, recognized that all those things were no longer hers. In that moment, she no longer owned that jewelry, those photos.

I’m far from a materialist, but if someone ran off with my photo albums of Taz or her artwork (heck, I’ve kept her bedroom just like she left it when she moved to college), I would fuss and ruminate and gunk up my energy field with anger.

Katie, on the other hand, could think of no good reason to hurt herself by giving any thought to the perceived unfairness of it all.

Those things? No longer hers. They belonged in a previous “now.” She prefers to enjoy the gifts in this “now.”

I’m sure digging my Mexican “now” and I trust you’re also enjoying yours.

#222 Forever!

Pam Grout is the author of 22 books including E-Squared, Thank & Grow Rich , The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World)and her latest, The Ego’s Playbook.