I attended Ariel & Shya’s “Passion: Revitalize Your Life” workshop in January. While I was attending the workshop, my four-year old son, Milan, spent time with his dad over the weekend. When I picked him up from school on the Monday after, he was so completely joyful and confident, having discovered his new abilities: ice skating on a single blade, snapping and whistling. It was so inspiring to see him so full of life and I knew that he was truly connected into the magic that happened during the weekend Passion workshop.

During that evening, Milan and I were hanging out at home and he called to me across the apartment, speaking in his own dialogue of made-up language. I responded back to him in made-up language and we had the funniest dialogue, exploding with laughter. I was so amazed, because speaking in a dialogue of made-up language was actually an activity we did at the Passion workshop! I could truly see how tapped into me he was. I could feel how when I took care of myself and went for my life passionately and without reservations, that my son was directly linked discovering his own gifts and passions, too.

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After attending Ariel and Shya’s weekend seminar on Passion in January 2008, I felt great! “Being in the moment” seemed easy. But, once I returned home, I gradually resumed my life and my routine, and I seemingly forgot about “being in the moment”.

Then I started listening to the Kanes’ podcasts and the Being Here radio show on the way to and from work. I have been preparing to go up for tenure and promotion as a college professor, and it has been a highly stressful time in my life. I noticed that I was being “short” with everyone, including my students and my boyfriend, Richard. I even had thoughts of quitting my job. Listening to the Kanes interact with different people began to help me practice “being in the moment” again.

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So my college-aged cousin decided to play an April Fool’s joke on me. I received an instant message from her saying that she had just dropped out of her classes, that she hates them and that she’ll never be a good student. She said that she would tell her parents in the morning that she was just going to work at Rite Aid full-time.

As I felt a flash of anger, I had various thoughts racing through my head:

(1) Shall I play therapist and get her to reconsider her options?
(2) Inquire as to why she dropped out of the classes.
(3) Chastise her.
(4) Give her a lecture on what she would lose out on.

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Ariel & Shya often talk about how transformation happens when you’re really listening to someone else, because that’s when you take your attention off yourself. It gives me such joy whenever I manage to really listen, because suddenly I notice that I’ve stopped listening to my own (usually negative) internal dialogue. As they say, you can’t do two things at once! And, when I’m not listening to my own thoughts, that’s when I’m in the moment. And when I’m in the moment (instead of in my head), then I’m not working on myself, not being judgment or self-critical. It’s when I’m enlightened!

Here’s a little story to illustrate just that:

Last Sunday I was cycling along the river. My husband Artur, and my brother Jack, were cycling behind me and talking. I was ahead, to be alone but in their company. On the water river-boats floated slowly past us, travelling in the opposite direction.

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Dear Friends,

I’m back from Kosovo for a few days and I’m really happy to be back in Germany with Dorina and all my friends. The experience in Kosovo was really amazing. It’s a poor but beautiful country with a lot of nice people there. And I had a really amazing experience with “being right” vs. “being alive’.

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