Isness

Isness. What an odd word. Upon first looking at the word it has the appearance of incompleteness. Could there be letters missing? I asked myself.  I have never heard of this word until yesterday, that is, until I watched the movie called, Third Star, with Benedict Cumberbatch and JJ Field. According to the Miriam-Webster dictionary it means the state of things as they are. 

As I researched the word a little more I discovered that Martin Luther King Jr used the word in one of his speeches:  " I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him." 

The root is being in the "present moment". I often think about how much we are wishing our lives away waiting for the weekend. Are we experiencing isness during our work week? Our minds go beyond the here and now more frequently than we realize, especially mine.  

Sometimes, I find myself sitting and starring at the computer in a daze, forgetting completely what I was doing, thinking about life as it should be. Then I come back to reality and pound away on the keyboard some more.

But "Isness' is more than about being present, I think. It is being. Being who we are and what we are meant to be. Our essence. When God spoke to Moses from a flame out of the midst of bush and said, "I am that I am" referring to his "isness", took the whole concept to another level.  "Is" seems hard to define with words or labels.  It is neither here or there, but now, this moment, ourselves.