No Small Moments - Presence and Presents - July 26, 2026

Presence or Presents

No Small Moments

“Presence and Presents”

©Hubcatstide2026

Depending on what is happening in our lives, we want to stop time, slow it down, or speed it up. First kisses, if it is a great first kiss, stop time. If someone with whom we share a loving relationship dies, it feels like the world doesn’t care because time and all the everyday things just keep going as if nothing has changed. If we are nauseated or waiting for a surgery that will heal our pain, please speed it up. If family and friends are visiting, PLEASE slow it down.

Anticipating time with loved ones is one of my favorite things. I try to be cognisant around not placing expectations on how I want others and our time together to be. That’s a tough one. I purchased tickets for Sarah and Jeremy to zipline over Oyama. I’m staying put on the ground, but I do expect their lines to hold them safely and provide a soft landing, and I do not have a problem with this expectation. I have asked them what they want me to cook, and I know their favorite snack foods, fruits, treats, and beverages. To say that I cannot wait to be with them is an understatement but wait I must. I have no choice. I do have a choice in how I spend my time before, between, and after visits with family and friends.

I will not spend time working on church things, and I will try not to think about work. The first week of holidays always demands awareness and discipline around my thoughts with work. By the second week, enough time has gone by, and I have fully emerged in resting, playing, writing, wandering to places in Lake Country I want to discover. I sink myself onto a float with books that have nothing to do with theology, or community development, and I don’t feel guilty around wasting my time. A person gave me a book about sex and reminded me to read it. I said, I’ve been celibate for twelve years, give me a break.”

“Read it, Traci.”

So, I will read it and who knows, in time, my person may appear and there will be a conversation about sex. Ministers are hesitant to preach about sexuality, spiritual abuse, money, and politics. Oh, and change. Most often, ministers are hired to bring needful and long overdue change and then pushed against when trying to implement what is needed. When is the best time, the right time, to craft and deliver a reflection on any of these subjects, and what will the fall out be, because everyone has an opinion around these things and if they should or should not be addressed from the pulpit. It’s an eggshell dance for ministers because they listen to congregants talk about these things during pastoral care visits but get us all together in a room and one of the subjects comes up, folks feel their cheeks reddening for individual reasons. The act of sex, the places to invest, the way to play, who to vote for, march or don’t march in a parade, hang or don’t hand a rainbow flag, I mean what will people think if I lean in and join the conversation?

Conversations are how we connect and disconnect. I want to spend July connecting with a whole lot of nothing and a whole lot of something that feeds my soul. I expect to do both, but I do not have expectations on how others will show up or how time will unfold in very ordinary sacred moment.

I know we cannot lasso time and I do not want to try and lasso another person. I cringe when I watch cowboys lasso bulls…that poor bull simply running for its life…running to be free to choose how he lives. I get it, lassoing bulls is a skill, but so is deciding not to try and lasso another human being. Well, unless they are a toddler running for the street, then yes, perhaps we need to carry long ropes and know how to use them when a toddler runs towards danger. But when an adult is walking into danger, all we can do is become curious and ask them if they are okay and is there some way we can walk beside them and listen or help when asked.

I’m a helper. I know I am also a fixer and that I have some of the unhealthy Enneagram 2 that pops up now and then, and I need to lasso her and remind her that whatever is happening it belongs to the other person’s journey and timeframe. I need to focus on my own interior world and remember time is ticking whether I want it to or not.

So, except for the zipline excursion that I will be observing on ground zero, I intend to be wherever my feet are and embrace every moment because as the saying goes, every moment we are present is a present and everyone is free to unwrap their presents however they choose. After all, time is all about our presence, and I do expect myself to show up and be loving without expectations or checking my watch because I don’t want to miss a moment.

There are no small moments.

Traci Hubbard