Presence & Preference

As I was driving in downtown Vancouver the other day I was noticing my energy beginning to withdrawal.  I was becoming less and less present.  In that moment I chose to ask questions and receive the awareness of what was going on.  What came forward was that I was using presence or lack of presence to assert my preference. Because I didn't prefer what I was witnessing in the people and realities around me, I was beginning to withdrawal.  In that moment I got a very clear message to acknowledge the difference between presence and preference.  If I were to commit to being present regardless of preference I would have more choices available. 

So, I ask this question now: what would it be like to choose presence regardless of preference?  We can be completely present in and through our bodies, with the earth and with the realities around us and continue to acknowledge our preferences, as in, I enjoy this activity, I appreciate this, I don't like that, I wish that wasn't like that etc.  Many of us have either witnessed or practiced the withdrawal of presence being used in attempt to manipulate or control people or realities around us.  It's those moments in childhood where we would be ignored until we behaved in a way that people around us liked or preferred.  We desired their presence and attention so much, we would do almost anything for it, including only showing up in the way that they wanted us to, or trying desperately change anything or everything about us that they didn't respond favorably to.  The more awareness we can have about how we and the people around us have been conditioned, the more choice we have to release the conditioning and choose true empowerment.

True empowerment is being free of manipulation and control, fully living in a loved based reality where you and the people around you have choice.  In a loved based reality, we have preferences, needs, desires and requests, yet we don't use the withdrawal of love, presence and attention as a way to coerce others into meeting those needs or fulfilling those desires.  It is their choice to meet them or not.  It is their choice to contribute or not. Just as it is our choice to fulfill people's requests and desires and meet their needs or not.  The more and more we become truly receptive and responsive to the unified field, our higher selves, Source consciousness, or however you want to name that source of wisdom that goes beyond name, the easier it is to know what our choices will create.  If I help this person will they have a greater future?  If I choose this what will my life be like in 5 years?  If I choose this what will the world be like in 5 years?  More and more we can be love in action attuned to the wisdom that guides the unfolding of consciousness in form.  We can surrender old strategies of trying to get our way, or show up in the "right" way, as dictated by others, and instead have true choice, know what love is, and get to gift and receive beauty and all that benefits what we most desire being expressed and actualized here.  May we have as much ease as possible being our gifts, knowing what's possible and acting from a balance of love and wisdom that fuels creation in its highest expression.