Too seldom do we enter the moment open to whatever surprises there are for us. Instead, we often flood it with the baggage we are carrying from our past. Like in the film, ‘The Mission’, we drag along a sack of dead-weight expectations. In this way we can easily lose the moment and end up simply repeating the way we live our lives. We can also miss it if we always feel we have to have something to show, or if we over- or under-manage it. Our commitment to being real, teachable, and flexible in each moment is so important.

As we let others see us truly, as in a mirror, we will be changed, for through this reality we will come to understand ourselves more fully. If however, we think we have to appear faultless to others, projecting a distorted image, we will not be changed. It is then just a social game we are playing.

We all know those with whom the stories and experiences are ‘stuck’ as if simply on the ‘repeat’ button. We also know those who don’t pretend and who risk real connection. This is why we learn so much from young children. Their immediacy, lack of pretence, and truthfulness to what they are really feeling gives us joy and life. This is what we as adults so need too.