The sea of flowers draws our attention. The sunflowers blossom together with a blanket of aroma and colours. We cannot help but feel the beauty and connect with inner memories related to moments when we recall a place, a smell, a visual that brought us a moment of joy. We can breath in and feel that moment again as it can exist in the present through our memories. But what we recall is not what we experienced in the past but is what we experience now - it is a different experience. The joy is in having the experience as a "now" experience.

Finding ways to draw immediately into brief meditations of joy, from what is available to us now, are even more powerful. The sunflower from the past will not be as amazing as the smallest of things you can notice at this very moment.

How many flowers are there? What is different about each one? What does each one tell you? Only presence of now can answer that.

I write this on July 16, 2016 - the world is in turmoil. There has been a terrorist attack in Nice a few days ago, today there is uprising in Turkey and our news is full of local tragedies. But if they become our story for the day then we invite inward pain and agony. Finding joy in the moment will help us deal with the reality of suffering by knowing that there are stories of both pain and joy in our lives.

© Peter Choate, 2016