Sit,
Settle,
Inhale deeply,
Let it go.
Sit,
Settle,
Inhale,
Let it go.
Welcome to a hit of hope.
Excuse my saltiness,
But there are times when Jesus and the Buddha annoy the bejesus out of me.
They make it sound so easy.
Love God and love one another.
Right there,
My mind is often running like a wild horse,
Listing all of the ways other people can be impossible to love.
Obviously,
Jesus,
You have not met so-and-so.
And God,
Well,
There are times when I think God has some answering to do for the ways of the world.
The Buddha is just as frustrating.
Two of his gems are life is suffering and everything is temporary.
Well,
Gee,
Buddha,
Aren't you just a ray of sunshine?
Exhale,
Exhale.
Rolling my eyes at these two luminaries came about recently as I was eating lunch.
I had my computer at the table with me and I was eating mindlessly because I was scrolling mindlessly.
Then I came across this from the Buddha.
Everything that arises passes away,
Which is another beautiful way of saying everything is temporary or how I often like to think about it.
Right now,
It's like this.
The problem is when things are good,
We don't want them to be temporary.
But when things are hard,
We can't imagine that things will ever change.
So as I was eating my lunch that day,
I closed my computer because I had been flooded by memories of what had arisen in my life.
A diagnosis,
Chemo,
A divorce I didn't want.
And in those soul-crushing moments,
Not only did my heart physically hurt,
But I was sure that this feeling would last forever and drown me.
Inhale,
Exhale.
When those storms thunder into our lives,
We have a number of ways that we can respond.
Somehow I was lucky enough to decide to listen to the still small voice of my spirit,
Which told me to sit still and do my best to weather the storms.
Inhale,
Exhale.
As I remembered what I had been through while eating my lunch,
I chanced to look out the window.
The house next door sports a bright periwinkle blue paint that always makes me smile.
It happened to be 15 degrees below zero that day,
And the air was almost painfully clear,
The light almost painfully bright.
As I sat there,
I looked to the top of the house next door,
Where wisps of steam swirled in the wind.
The wisps would rise and curl,
Dance and disappear.
Everything that arises passes away.
When you are in the emotional storms of your life,
It's probably hard to look at them with delight and wonder,
As I did sitting there looking at that steam.
Inhale,
Exhale.
When you are in your storm,
You are in your storm,
And you often don't know when it will pass or how much damage it might leave behind.
Inhale,
Exhale.
The emotions might crash and threaten to drown you.
The storms might feel as if they are going to last forever and destroy all that is good and alive inside.
Sit.
Breathe.
Inhale.
Exhale.
There's something else.
As I was watching the curling wisps,
I found myself getting angry when they disappeared and there were no more forthcoming,
When it was just the periwinkle house and the unending blue sky.
Our relationship with drama is complicated.
We usually hate it when it's present.
We can get so damn bored when it's not.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Everything that arises,
Like your breath,
Will pass away.
Right now,
It's like this.
Sit.
Breathe.
Stay and live light.
