Yesterday, I went to see an Off-Broadway show that my big kid was stage managing. It was musical about a summer that Mary Shelley spent in Geneva, writing with Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, John Polidori, and others.

It is a wonderful story. Over the course of two hours, the songs piece together the monsters of their fiction, and shed electrifying light on the monstrosities of human behavior.

Today, as I was reading the news/doom scrolling, one of the very catchy tunes from the musical popped into my head. It’s called What Now? What Next?

The song uses those words as two pieces of one question. But what now, and what next can have very different meanings.

What next, can be a simple command to tick the next thing off of a to-do list. It can be a call to action. But it can also be a big, scary, anxiety inducing question.

And what now, can sometimes sound hopeless, like woe is me. But if we take it literally it can be a call to calm, abiding, presence of mind.

What can we do right now? With this moment that we have right now? Let’s find some calm, abiding, presence right now, before we try to figure out what might be next.

A meditative exercise:

First, press your thumb tip into your pointer finger tip.
Next, press your thumb tip into your middle finger tip.
Next press your thumb tip into your ring finger tip.
Next press your thumb tip into your pinky finger tip.
As you press your thumb into your pointer say (silently or aloud) ‘Grounded’
As you press your thumb into your middle finger say ‘Present’
As you press your thumb into your pointer say ‘Here’
As you press your thumb into your pointer say ‘Now’

Repeat this over and over for a minute, or a few minutes. Notice your breath as you do it. Let your breath be slow. Notice if your mind wanders away to stories of the past or an imagined future. Try to focus on the feelings of your fingers pressing into eachother. Or focus on your breath. Or focus on your words.

Grounded. Present. Here. Now. Grounded. Present. Here. Now.

Stay, as long as you can, in this moment.

Perhaps keeping the monsters at bay. For now.