Day 76

Day 76: Real Time
Day 3: 21 Day Complaint Free Journey

“In a New Yorker cartoon, Gahan Wilson shows two Buddhist monks seated next to each other, quiet, still, meditating. One is very old and experienced in the ways of mediation. The other is young and has a perplexed look on his face. It’s evident that he has just asked his more experienced mentor a question. The old monk’s answer to the question is: “Nothing happens next. This is it.”

I wish I could attribute the above passage properly; however, it is a page torn from a long forgotten book, page 323 actually that I carry around in my purse. These words speak loudly to me at this stage in my life, and it's too bad I can't give credit where it's due.

I have spent decades running from one task to the next. Stop and smell the roses? I never even knew roses came in an abundance of colors, and I certainly never bought myself any with the money I worked so hard for.

Things have slowed down for me, though, and I cherish the opportunities I have created to watch clouds and take in the scent of gardenias as well as roses in all their glory. I had to grasp the inherent wisdom behind trite phrases like, “Life isn’t a dress rehearsal.” My daughter had that one pasted to her bookcase for years, but the words didn’t register with me until she left for college and the house was deadly quiet. I had wasted so much time being critical of…..well, just about everything….that I probably missed things that existed only once in all of eternity.

Sad. We’re always thinking the other side of something is better than where we stand right now. Many of us not only think the grass will be greener over there; we spend a lot of precious time trying to convince others of it, too. We seem to feel that we’re wasting time if we’re not a whirling dervish of activity, complete with a crew of like-minded folks.

What would happen in your life today if you adopted the elderly monk’s vision: Nothing happens next. This is it. Do you think you would enjoy this moment, and then that one, and the next one just a bit more? Accept things instead of attempting to control them, thinking that SOMETHING is always supposed to be happening?

Day 3.