Presence — Where Are You? A luminous reflection on Presence, Surrender, and Gratitude
As we step into a new year together, I want to offer you something simple, gentle, and profoundly alive.
This episode was recorded beneath the unseen branches of the Tree of Serendipity — not as a teaching, not as a conclusion, but as a shared pause. A moment to breathe together. To listen. To remember what is already here.
So many of us have been quietly trained — lovingly, unconsciously — to believe that freedom lies just ahead of us.
If we grow a little more.If we heal a little faster.If we understand a little deeper.
And yet, in this listening, something else revealed itself:
Presence isn’t something we strive for or try to be in. It’s something that reveals itself when we stop holding our breath.
Sometimes all it takes is an exhale. A softening. A smile.
In this episode, I share an image that arrived gently but clearly — the image of a horse pulling a cart, eyes fixed on the carrot, moving forward because that is what horses do.
There was nothing wrong with that horse.Nothing broken.Nothing tragic.
Only conditioning.
And then, one day, the harness loosened.The bit fell away.And instead of a path… there was a field.
Wide.Wind-filled.Alive.
Freedom did not arrive as something new. It revealed itself when effort fell away. There was no looking back and condemning... only gratitude and awe for this gift of lightness and being.
This reflection was shaped by a moment of quiet serendipity — the meeting of two great wisdom streams.
One voice reminds us that body and mind belong together, and that peace becomes available the moment we return to the breath. Thich Nhat Hahn's book: Body and Mind are One
The other points us toward radical surrender — not as passivity, but as the release of the one who believes life must be controlled. Sri Ramana Maharshi's book: Be As You Are
Together, these teachings do not feel like instructions.
They feel like a field.
A field we can enter by stopping.Relaxing.Breathing.Listening.
Surrender does not mean abandoning our lives.
We still work.We still care for our families.We still make plans.
What changes is not what we do, but the energy we bring to it.
Surrender is releasing the belief that fear is the best manager of life.It is allowing action to arise from presence rather than tension.
Not giving up responsibility — but giving up the illusion that control is what keeps us safe.
We also look at Gratitude as a way of seeing, not a practice to perform.
It is an offering.
A way of noticing the wholeness of what is already here:
The body.The senses.The Earth beneath us.The warmth of a cup of tea.The invisible hands and lives that made this moment possible.
Gratitude widens the field.And in that widening, Presence reveals itself naturally.
This episode does not offer answers.
It offers companionship.
If something in you feels touched, curious, or quietly relieved — nothing more is required.
Just pause.Exhale.And notice.
Freedom may not be waiting somewhere else.
It may already be here.
Thank you for listening.Thank you for breathing with me.
May we rest where we are. May we listen deeply — to our own hearts and the hearts of all. May we discover freedom not as a destination, but as a gentle remembering.
With love and gratitude,
Presence Is Not Somewhere ElseThe Horse, the Harness, and the Open FieldTwo Voices, One Living FieldSurrender Without EscapeGratitude as an OfferingAn Invitation
