This morning, while centering, rooting and grounding, I watched a dove walking around on my lanai, and since we feed a group of birds every morning, I know it is a place that it has probably visited over dozens of times before.

Then why did it look like it was visiting Earth for the very first time?

It walked around in a circle, observantly tilting head in this angle and that, curiously taking in its mundane surroundings which appeared to hold nothing exceptional…a seed hull, a barbecue grill. Yet it took its time, with each head tilt acting as if it beheld a fresh, new sight, one never before considered.

I thought: THIS. This is the presence we all seek. This is the presence I seek.

Hundreds, thousands, of times I return to my energy body, to a sensation there, a thought here- hundreds of things I repetitively do, see, encounter. How often do I regard the moment as brand new?

I realized when I am holding my highest vibration, I do this all the time, actually. Every moment is fresh, new and wonder-full. Whether it’s my husband telling me about his day, bird-watching, watering the flowers, or writing, I am luminous, light-filled and at my most alive when I am in presence.

Nothing I’ve encountered comes close to this feeling.

When I am present and light, I feel my innate awesome-ness. I notice things that few others notice. I am at my most intelligent, curious, brilliant and observant. My husband tells me a half hour after the fact that he just “got” the idea I had quickly gleaned, connected, in seconds. I jokingly retort, “See what I have to work with?” He’s a highly intelligent man, if but a distracted one. I chalk my smarts up to presence.

Sometimes I lose touch with this magic. When I am caught up in an energy and telling a story about it, when I am ungrounded, when my energy runs high and fast, when I’m procrastinating on, avoiding or dreading doing something I don’t want to do, when I’m too much in my head or overthinking … I am temporarily unable to feel so awesome. The world temporarily loses its magic. The exact same world that once glimmered and glowed with magical aliveness threatens to give me a headache.

Distraction = loss of presence, feeling disconnected from the magic of life

When you break it down in this way, it’s a simple formula, really. Not easy to accomplish, but simple to identify, and so once identified becomes workable. Distraction from self, running at a frenzied pace, not going deep enough into this moment, causes the entire world to lose its magical luster.

It’s a distracting season; it’s easy to rush through the moments, not honoring the magic available in each. Life is nothing but a string of moments, to which we bring meaning, brevity and value with our presence. The magic each of us craves can only appear when we are present to the moment — not caught up in a story that is acting diametrically in opposition to the thing we most want.

…And, that, in a (festive holiday) nutshell, is the challenge of every Gemini Full Moon.

Gemini Full Moon Intuitive Energy Practice: Go A Little Deeper

Here’s a Gemini joke – ok, perhaps it’s a little annoying thing I’ve observed (I’m using it for educational purposes so we’re good, right, Gem?)  Say you are telling a Gemini about an issue you are having with a contractor who is working on your house, and you use an expression or word, maybe its the word “hammer”… and, so, of course, they remember the time they hammered their finger by accident, had to go to emergency room, and it was on their birthday (!?!?)… You ask them to repeat what you had just said, and they have no idea. All they heard was “hammer”. Now, “hammer” is all they want to talk about.

The distracted mind chases squirrels. This squirrel, that one, then, ooh look at that one. It’s a superficial way to move through the world, yet common one. It takes awareness to recognize when we’re chasing squirrels, see how unproductive it is, and gently guide our mind toward more satisfying directions and habits. When this happens, I might ask my mind, “Hey, does this feel productive, or good to me? No? Ok, wanna try something else?…” Then, I will attempt some kind of body-based energy practice, like this next one.

Here’s the practice: Sit down. Ground, root and center. Feel your feet on the ground. Relax into your spine a little bit more. Feel your pelvic bowl, and if it doesn’t feel soft and open already, send some energy flow down there. This first step is so important to presence that if it’s all you can do you are 99% in.

Set the intention to both be present, and to tune into the light, eternal, patient, peaceful LOVE that you are. You might ask yourself: What would it be like to be a little more present right now?  To feel my lightness?

Observe any sensation you feel in your body. Maybe there’s some heaviness around your heart, tightness in your back, maybe you’re holding your breath a little, or holding tension in your pelvic bowl, or your root.

Notice if you are telling a story about what you are feeling. Often, when we are exposed to dis-resonant energies, we carry them with us, and then because our mind naturally tries to make sense of what we feel, we will tell our self a story about it, one based on previous exposures to similar feeling energies. The story often isn’t true, or based in the present. The story is often, no -the story is always, irrelevant.

Go a little deeper. Get underneath any story. Drop down more deeply into your pelvic bowl and Root chakra. Feel your energy flow from the back of your heart and spine and down into that yummy area.

This is the center of Truth. Your Root always connects you to The Truth. The more deeply you are nestled into your comfy, yummy Root chakra energy, the more you are able to recognize a made-up story, be it an old familiar feeling you have tied to a story you are telling yourself, a thought tangent that has no real substance, or a person who is carrying energy that feels inauthentic, distracted, or anything else strange feeling, to you. Once here, it’s easy to release and melt back into presence.

Once you are fully *right here*, you will also find that you can more easily accommodate (or patiently tolerate) the people in your life who may be more distracted, right now. Know that when you are anchored into deep presence, you are a lighthouse for everyone else’s peace. Your bright beam invites all to come back home; believe it or not, give them enough time in your deep presence and they will do it naturally.

One of the most nurturing things we can do for ourselves is hold the intention to be deeply present. May you move forward into the season empowered to co-create holiday magic — with the light of your presence!