A Field Guide to NOW: Notes On Mindfulness and Life In the Present Tense ⋆ Book Box PDF

A Field Guide to NOW: Notes On Mindfulness and Life In the Present Tense pdf by CHRISTINA ROSALIE

This is what I know: Remarkable things emerge from the smallest, most ordinary circumstances—from taking note and then taking action.

This book is in your hands because making it became unavoidable. Its inklings persisted, even when I was afraid, even when everything else in my life was riddled with uncertainty. Its truth showed up again and again with such insistence until I could no longer procrastinate, or pretend that there were other, more important things to do, or shrug it off with the promise of “someday.”

Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.
—Matsuo Basho

February, in the same week as my sons’ birthdays, I put myself 100 percent behind it and asked for support with an open heart. I launched the project on Kickstarter, and friends and family and complete strangers backed it. I cannot express how deeply grateful I am for the opportunity their support created.

Their funding afforded me the possibility of taking the time to focus wholly on the work of creating, of turning the drafts and sketches scrawled in my notebook into something tangible and certain. It gave me the courage to claim this work for my life.

This book is evidence of that work. It is a glimpse into the turbulent process of becoming, and a reference manual for the observations, artifacts, and bits of wonderment that emerged from that process. It is both an invitation to you to create whatever opportunity your heart yearns for and proof that it is possible.

To begin, to be in the mess, to be right here. Because it is in these ordinary moments—of writing lists, sharing things, keeping secrets, preparing food, sleeping, making love, fighting, rushing, folding laundry, and dreaming—that we become, always and again, whoever it is we are meant to become.

Introduction