Have you ever had the feeling that what’s happening right now in the present moment is a good thing? It’s a quiet feeling, but as you’re experiencing it, you know deep down that what’s going on is good, it’s right, it’s meaningful.

I experienced that yesterday as we were doing an engineering project with the students at Kyosei Training Centre. Over the past month we had collected various materials (plastic water bottles, bottle caps, styrofoam, buttons, etc.) and we had the kids design their own model.

When I experienced the feeling, I was standing in the courtyard, watching the kids work on their project. My adult class was helping distribute the materials and monitor the whole thing. The school principal was walking around admiring the different creations, as well as the school director.

This project was something different, a type of learning the kids never ordinarily get to partake in. It was hands-on, it was collaborative, it was creative. And you could see they enjoyed it.

It was only a few fleeting seconds of the feeling, but it was powerful. When we do right, sometimes we know it. Everyone was doing right in that courtyard. You could witness the learning. The literal building, but also the figurative building toward the future, to something more.

As the native American proverb I learned growing up says, we do not inherit the Earth from our parents. We borrow it from our children. When we understand that, we can find ecstasy in the pure, good moments. And we see: it’s one big beautiful amazing world.