I was lying around with a friend a few weeks ago and she turned to me and said, “Tell me the story of your tattoos.”

To date, I have four tattoos which I’ve gotten over the course of many years, and I’m not asked to talk about them as a body of work very often. So the story of my tattoos that I told my friend was kind of new to me, too. In telling it, though, I was both surprised and delighted to discover that there is a stronger theme running through this story than I anticipated—and it can be embodied in just one small word: This.

This cake is delicious
I know. At first glance it doesn’t really capture the imagination, does it? Unlike lyrical concepts like Beauty or Unity, “This” as a theme kind of leaves you hanging. But once I wrap my story around it, hopefully it will make better sense.

The story starts on a day over a decade ago when I finally worked up the nerve to get my first tattoo. I’d been talking about for years, but for one reason or another, I kept backing out or changing my mind. But after years of being attracted to the concept of getting a tattoo, I finally decided to take the plunge. I told none of the people who had tried to talk me out of it in the past. Instead, I booked my appointment and then called a girlfriend to hold my hand for moral support.

That first piece was relatively small — a band around my right ankle with the picture of a piece of cake and the words: This cake is delicious.

Sounds frivolous. Wasn’t. I actually pulled it from Osho’s book On Courage where he told the story of a monk who was dying and all his disciples were gathered around him to pay their last respects. Then one disciple walks in with a piece of cake and hands it to the master, who sits up in bed, eats it and says, “This cake is delicious.” It’s his last lesson to his students—that no matter what’s going to happen next, the only thing that matters is what’s happening now.

This moment
My second tattoo runs along my inner left forearm and it’s much longer. It also contains a quote, because I love words. I pulled this one from a fiction book written by an author named R. Scott Bakker. While the whole piece is longer, the part that’s relevant to this story says: “Make no mistake: this moment, the instant of this very breath, is the frail thread from which all creation hangs.”

The depth of that statement still sometimes takes my breath away. In each moment, in each breath, we are literally creating our next moment — and in this manner the future unfolds, according to our own creation.

All we’ve got is this
My most recent tattoo was the most ambitious yet. It depicts a meditator sitting under a bodhi tree, the tree under which the Buddha is rumoured to have achieved enlightenment. In my tree, however, the trunk and some of the branches are composed of words (surprise!). There are eight quotes embedded in that tree, but the one relevant to this story says, “All we’ve got is this.”

That one was pulled from a song whose singer/songwriter was actually confronted by a stranger while walking down the street. The stranger pulled him aside and said: “Close your eyes; all we’ve got is this.”

I have taken that literally. “This” is all we’ve got. “This” is the whole story. This moment. This cake.

The instant of this very breath is the place we must continually return to if we hope to find true peace. This is where we are right now. This is the only starting point we have. And, whenever we get lost, we can easily find our way if we just remember — over and over — to return to this.

See? It may not be a self-contained concept like Love or Joy, but to me, this reminder to always be present is the real story of our lives.