Last Word: Being Present in His Creation
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones together.”
– Ecclesiastes 3: 1-5
In this verse, a distinct time is designated for a multitude of actions and emotions, emphasizing the importance of experiencing things for what they are in the moment.
In High school, I ran cross country and my coach was infamous for sitting the whole team down before practices and giving a speech for an hour or two before we would go out for a run. He would talk about many things, but one important speech that was given each year, for no less than two hours, focused on living in the moment. He explained it as being shoulder to shoulder with someone during a race, pushing yourself and experiencing that moment for exactly what it is, in its purest form. Living in the moment to him was best explained through the light of a race, that to me at that time seemed to go by so quick there was almost no time to think. His explanation confused me, because often leading up to a race, I would be nervous and anxious for what was to come, in my mind not living in that moment before the race and always in anticipation of what was to come.
Coming up to work at Wilderness, I have begun to understand what he was talking about when he said live in the moment, but under a bit of a new light. During my most previous trip on trail, 5 nights with a Project Success group, I took some time to myself in my tent before bed to reflect upon the day and the trip thus far and I wrote this passage pertaining to how I live in the moment out on trail:
I think that out here, life is distilled down into one of its purer forms. Each day you are faced with a task, a journey to get from one campsite to the next. After the dishes from dinner are cleaned and camp tidied up, there is a sense of accomplishment knowing that the necessary ground has been covered. Every emotion is contained within a day, from nervous anticipation of the weather to weariness of having to push through a long paddle, and satisfaction of the post-portage candy bar. In this way, each day is full – not in the temporal sense but full as in each moment, you know that you were present and experiencing life to the fullest, not looking forward to what is to come but getting through the task ahead that is the day, the full day. These days can be overwhelming, and leave us exhausted more often than not, but each night I can rest knowing that if I were not to wake up tomorrow, God would welcome me with open arms, for I was present in his creation, living as he intended.
I invite you to, in the next few weeks, make the best of your situations, and be present in the moment.
Written by Jack DeGonda, 2021 Guide