Loving Presence: 24 Contemplations and Practices

There are times in life when we don't need another answer, another demand to change, or another way of trying to become better. We need a different way of being with what is here. Loving Presence was written for those times. Human beings carry many forms of suffering-grief, fear, loneliness, exhaustion, self-criticism, old wounds, and the quiet feeling of being disconnected from ourselves, from others, or from life. Some suffering can be changed. Some must first be met. Loving Presence is a way of meeting our experience with warmth, gentleness, tenderness, care, and awareness-without requiring ourselves to be different before we can receive them. Through 24 short contemplations and simple practices, Loving Presence offers ways to experience this directly through breathing, the body, gentle movement, touch, listening, seeing, creativity, nature, stillness, and quiet attention. This is not a book about perfecting yourself. It is an invitation to discover what can happen when struggle is no longer met with more struggle-when pain is met with tenderness, fear with gentleness, exhaustion with rest, and the places within us that have been wounded are given room to soften. There is no belief system to adopt and no particular way you need to be. You can read the book from beginning to end or open it wherever you are. Each contemplation offers a small place to stop, become present, and experience Loving Presence for yourself. Sometimes healing begins not by becoming something else, but by learning how to lovingly be with what is already here.