So, Liliana and I are flipping through magazines that I haven’t read yet, and she comes upon an old Marie Claire that’s left over from traveling to the Ukraine.  All of a sudden, she’s by my side, her head bent over the glossy page, her face inches from it, and she’s pointing to the picture above.  “Sad,” she says.  “Sad puppy.”  The puppy does, indeed, look forlorn, and somehow she’s learned these two words and put them together in a coherent fashion.  She repeats the phrase over and over, with a slight worried furrow in her brow, and when Dan comes home, she shows him the picture, too.  “Sad puppy,” she says.  Dan and I think she’ll be a marvelous beagle owner.

On another note, I’ve been reading and absorbing this book called The Power of Now, one which I hear religious people everywhere are against for some reason.  [I had listened to all the Oprah podcasts last spring, but I’m just now getting around to the book.]  Is this only because they haven’t actually read the book, or because they’re assuming it’s some New Age hogwash?  I’ve never understood the attitude: “Thanks, but no thanks, we’ve got the Bible, and that’s all we need.”  Certainly, there were other writers, other intellectuals, other mystics, other contemplatives, throughout the centuries, who thought long and hard about their lives and came up with some pretty good advice on how to live them.  The Bible isn’t the only place to learn how to live.

The part I find interesting so far is the fact that we do live more in the past or the future, rather than the very state of being we’re in, which is now.  We fret over the past, wondering how things could have been better.  If we think our future is bright, it brings a sense of pleasure.  If the future looks gloomy, it brings a sense of anxiety.  Neither of which are factual, or true.  The future hasn’t happened yet.  It was this very fact that erased a lot of my fear about having a child.  I realized I couldn’t control what was going to happen–what she would be like, whether or not she would like me, if she would die before Dan or myself.  All these things had not yet happened, so why was I worrying?

It’s interesting.  Eckhart Tolle, the author, says this:

“Since ancient times, spiritual masters of all traditions have pointed to the Now as the key to the spiritual dimension.

Despite this, it seems to have remained a secret.  It is certainly not taught in churches and temples.  If you go to a church, you may hear readings from the Gospels such as “Take no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself,” or “Nobody who puts his hands to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.”  Or you might hear the passage about the beautiful flowers that are not anxious about tomorrow but live with ease in the timeless Now and are provided for abundantly by God.  The depth and radical nature of these teachings are not recognized.  No one seems to realize that they are meant to be lived and so bring about a profound inner transformation.”

Tonight, we went to church with Liliana for the first time.  We took her to our favorite church in a suburb of the cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul)–a 220-mile roundtrip for us–and went to Lucia’s in Uptown afterwards.

Now, I’m as full and as happy as a tick.