I Am Here
by Yvette Trujillo, RScP
Things happen. You can be a wonderful, kind, honest, and genuinely caring person, and things happen. You can be a faithful, prayerful, and affirming person, and things happen. Life is not kinder to some and more punishing to others based on our goodness. We are not blessed or cursed, worthy or unworthy, based on how good or bad we are. Life simply happens. But we are not at the mercy of what happens. It might be hard to see, but we always have the choice of where we focus our attention.
At work, we have a tradition of starting every meeting by sharing one thing that is new and good. We go around the virtual room, and each person takes a moment to identify and share one thing. Sometimes it’s hard to come up with something good, but the exercise forces me to dig into the details of my life to find something; I have never come up empty-handed. Even if my offering is simply “I am here,” I can look upon that as a positive thing and something to be genuinely grateful for. This simple practice is profound in that it exemplifies the power we each have to shift our attention to the good. Even if the positive is not easily within our grasp, if we look with intention, we will always find it.
As I look around the landscape of my life, I can see the shifts and turns, the glorious and epically painful moments and experiences I’ve had. In hindsight, I can see each differently than I could in the moment. In the rearview mirror, I see the journey that has brought me here. I can see the path in, though, and out of every challenge. I survived; I am here. In the midst of every challenging experience, I know that I have a choice: I can look directly into the belly of the beast that appears to envelop me and take up 100% of my vision, or I can dig for that which is good. I can turn my own head, shift my own thinking toward a blessing, focus there, and allow it to pull upon me and expand in my view until it pushes the challenge into the periphery of my vision and I am surrounded by the gift and the light of life. I know that in every moment and in every experience, we all have this power to shift. This is true in the sweetness of life and in the darkest of times. We all have a new and good to turn toward, and doing this makes all the difference. I am here. You are here. For this knowing, I give deep thanks. And so it is.