" We all have an appointment with life and the time is now." Thich Nhat Hahn

I was leafing through a notebook in which I had jotted down thoughts and ideas from a recent conference I had attended. At some point the speaker spoke these words of Thich Nhat Hahn, the wise Buddhist priest, who walks so easily in his Buddhist world while gently holding his Christian brothers and sisters. It is rare for me to come across his words and not be stopped in my tracks at their beautiful simplicity.

We have an appointment with life and the time is now. We know this. We can say it to ourselves over and over and yet, if you are like me, we so quickly forget. Stuff piles up, lists get too long, dramas evolve, and before we know it, we are speeding down the road at 100 miles an hour having missed our appointment with now. We allow all kinds of infringements on the most precious gift we are being given with each breath…..now. This moment. This amazing and beautiful space of time and place, of presence and being.

The Scottish theologian and poet George MacLeod said: "God is now." Can it be that when we barge full speed ahead that we not only miss our appointment with our lives but we also miss an appointment with the Holy? It is something to consider. In the presence of this very moment, everything that has ever been and everything that is yet to be lives in eternity and we who are living, breathing, with hearts beating are held in between both, carried on the Breath of God. What a glorious realization!

Here I am. Still in my pajamas, sitting at my computer working on all manner of things, riding on the Breath of God…..now. Of all the appointments I may keep today, none is more important than this one.

Breathe with me?