The Train Stop. How to Access the Magic in the Present Moment 

Many have misconceptions about the present moment and think it’s something we have to learn to live in, yet the opposite is true:

It is the future and past which we must learn how to live “out of” and without. 

The past is an illusion because we “think” things happened yesterday, or a year ago, or in our childhood but in reality, the past is a series of “present moments” we never let go of or forgot for one reason or another. The past is not behind us, it is simply a present moment which is no longer available to us to experience –unless we hold onto it.  

The past is a collection of emotional memories from multiple present moments though the “illusion of linear time”.

I'd like to take you to a journey within yourself to help you understand how the present moment works. Imagine you are a majestical, beautiful, train stop on a vast amount of open land. Your entire existence is being this train stop. Imagine the layout of your land as the train tracks are in front of you. Imagine the building or buildings on your land. Perhaps a collection of beautiful bright green, blooming vines growing up the brick building and soaking up the sunlight on the rooftop. Pots of flowers scattered around graciously and generously as the pots overfill with new, vibrant blooms. Imagine a large, beautiful water fountain bringing the sound of flowing water to the environment. A field behind the station where a variety of trees, fruits, and flowers shine and rest in the sunshine.   

You see, you ARE the train stop in life. The passengers, the packages, the experiences of who you meet by being the train stop always comes to you. Some of the packages delivered to you like the plants you plant and the fond memories you hold can add beauty to your landscape. You are a one of a kind train stop. There is no other like you because your passengers (life experiences and lessons) are unique to only you.  How you develop your landscape is entirely your experience and your choice. 

Sometimes the train can drop off challenges for you to overcome. Sometimes the train can bring lessons for you to learn. And people for you to meet. But as the train stop, you never actually go anywhere. Everything comes to you and goes away from you. Your solidity in the present moment as the train stop, is how life really works. 

You are a space and a place which everything runs through. Everything comes to you for you to experience and grow from.  

It’s very important for you to know, and then to experience and explore all that you, your train stop holds. You hold everything in your land and landscape which you could ever imagine, dream of, and even more. Even if you aren’t quite sure exactly where it is on your vast landscape, you hold pure love, compassion, endless wisdom, peace, and all the things you wish you were – they're already there. You simply haven’t noticed them on your land yet.   On your landscape, you have a solid well which is full of all the wisdom you could ever want or need access to. On your landscape you have a guide who quietly calls out answers to all of your questions. Mind you, this guide can only be heard in silence and in the present moment of you being present.  

Everything you wish you could be, you already are.  

You already have absolutely everything you need to live the life you’ve imagined.  

All of the wisdom you could ever want or need is available to you.

Your guide with all the answers to your questions can only be heard in silence while in the present moment. 

Your vast landscape is always a place of safety, love, and support.

There is nothing outside of you which can make you happier than what you already have. You just have to look inside for it. Look on your own landscape. 

If you are wishing for certain experiences in life, keep in mind the experiences the train brings and delivers are often much, much more beautiful and meaningful than you can imagine. And much better than what you are asking for.   

While you sit here in this present moment. Imagining the landscape of your presence and the vastness of your being. Look around your land and notice weeds you may want to remove, perhaps a good sweep of fallen leaves, or add some nourishment to your garden. This is your landscape, after all. The care and maintenance is up to you as you care for yourself and love your self as the winds and train of life travels by.  

Take it a bit deeper and notice how the detail in this present moment is endless. The depth of your landscape from the poetry hanging on the train station wall to the smiling and welcoming ticket salesman, to the wind blowing through as it carries sweet scents of roses and honeysuckle. You see, this is all inside of you for you to feel.

The present moment is deep, expansive, and vast. It is eternal. And once you become accustomed to living in and from to your own train stop, your entire world gets bigger, deeper, and more expansive. Small things become smaller. Big things become smaller, and you can enjoy life from a perspective of solid being as you show up from what the train of life brings by.

Life is always coming to you. You are never going anywhere. As the weather, the wind, the passengers and the train come and go, you never actually move. Everything comes to you. 

You are a place and a space on the map of the universe, a beautiful and expansive train station whose details are lovely, never-ending, vast, and deep, for there is a well of love and compassion not only on the surface, but underneath the grounds where the water flows to the river nearby and the fertile soil feeds the trees and grasses. 

The present moment is all which really exists. Your train stop is all which actually exists in relation to time. Time is not real. You are not on the train and you are not the train. The train tracks only bring life experience and other passengers to you for you to learn and grow from, and with. 

We don’t go to the present moment, it is our natural state. This state of being is our natural state. There is no other place for us to achieve or get to. 

Life is a string of present moments, weather, challenges, and passengers which are presented to us one by one. Life is the train. You are the landscape.

This is why it is entirely impossible to know the future. Each choice you make in a present moment can change the next moment, and the next moment, and so on. The choices you make in one experience, determines your next "life delivery" on the train of life deliveries. 

This is why in the realm of possibilities, possibilities are endless.  

And all other people are also a beautiful train stop on the map. Take also a moment to notice that when we place all the maps together, we are all one, big place altogether. And you will see when and if we ever hurt someone else's land who passed through our vast landscape, the pollution we place in the water will eventually make it back to our rivers as well. The words we speak to other passengers will eventually come back in the wind of our landscape and wilt our own flowers.  

This is also why, when we are seeking and searching from something we often cannot find it. It’s because not only are we on the train searching for something we already have access to, we are looking for something outside of ourselves, we are often looking for a passenger, an experience, or a package which simply hasn’t been delivered yet because we are not present on our own landscape to accept the delivery. When we are not present at our train station, and on our own land to accept deliveries, they blow right through our lives without us noticing we missed them.  

As the weather, the wind, the passengers and the train come and go, you never actually move. Everything comes to you. 

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Sending you much love and a lifetime of beautiful moments, 

Lora Perry