The Flowering of the Mood of Presence

From Howard Thurman, Deep Is The Hunger, on leisure:

“Time is of the essence in developing the inner life because, without a sense of leisure, the external world with its demands, emergencies, and crises, chokes the flowering of the mood of Presence.”

Boy, is there a lot there!    Those “demands, emergencies, and crises” can damn sure get me focused on the “external world” to the exclusion of “developing the inner life.”  Thurman, though, is ever the realist.  He is not reaching for the stars, trying to achieve leisure, but only “a sense of leisure.”  That is, as I read it, look up from those pressing demands of the external world from time to time and recognize the existence of and the need to nurture the “inner life.’  This is necessary to the  (I love this phrase) “flowering of the mood of Presence.”