Let's inhale and exhale.
Bring that beautiful breath into that amazing body of yours.
Now let it go.
Welcome to a hit of hope,
And this one is slightly salty.
Recently I did a meditation about spiritual duct tape.
And when I mentioned that my daughter was disappointed because she thought I was going to do one about a spiritual duck,
A couple of you agreed.
So here we go.
You might be familiar with the image of a duck representing how many of us are going through our lives.
It's all calm on the surface,
But underneath its webbed feet are paddling like mad.
Do you ever feel like that?
I sure do.
It can happen when a situation spirals out of control and you're just doing your best to manage it.
It can happen when you have too many demands and are struggling to get everything done.
It can happen for all kinds of reasons.
And there are certainly times when we need to maintain our calm as we do our best to get through a challenging time.
But just as the duck's feet are paddling like mad under the surface,
I think there's an underside to this image.
It can become the standard,
The norm.
If you aren't racing around like mad,
Well,
Then what are you doing with your life?
Because busyness can become a competition,
As can how capably we are handling our busyness.
Look at me.
Look at how well I'm handling all of these demands.
This is not to make anyone feel badly about being busy or capable,
But it is meant to ask us to look at how this attitude can crawl inside of us and lead us to think that we have to live lives that are constantly moving at a hundred miles an hour because that's what everyone else is doing.
Inhale.
Exhale.
You know what?
It's okay to float.
It's okay to be still,
To enjoy the light of the sun,
The breeze in the trees.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Something else came to mind as I considered a spiritual duck.
Life is sure to throw things our way,
So it might behoove us to have a couple of spiritual ducks tucked in our back pockets.
What in the hell am I talking about?
Well,
You probably know that there are going to be situations that will be challenging or triggering for you.
Rather than let those things smack you face on,
What if you figured out a couple of ways to duck,
To dodge,
If you will?
One of my favorite comedies is Dodgeball.
Completely inappropriate and wildly hilarious,
One of the most iconic scenes is when the dodgeball coach sits before the ragtag team of players and begins chucking wrenches at them,
Bellowing,
If you can dodge a wrench,
You can dodge a ball.
Sometimes life throws wrenches at us.
Those wrenches might be old memories,
Habits,
Hurts,
Anxieties,
Dreams that have died,
Or hopes that have been dashed.
A metaphorical wrench in the metaphorical head can hurt like a son of a bitch.
That's why we need to have a spiritual duck or dodge in place for when it happens.
If you know a wrench is on its way,
Maybe meditate that day or take a walk after or imagine yourself in a French absurdist play.
Imagine what might walk on stage next.
A screaming goat with Elvis hair,
A frying pan singing opera,
A lumberjack in a tutu drinking a kale smoothie,
All while taking a selfie and making a duck face.
One of my favorite current spiritual ducks is the mantra,
And my apologies,
I've forgotten where I first heard this,
But the mantra,
I am not going to pick up that thought because you know what?
I find my thoughts circling back to a particular place I don't want my thoughts to circle back to.
So I've started to notice when my thoughts are boomeranging back toward that place,
I don't want them to go,
And I say in my head,
I am not going to pick up that thought.
And you know what?
Nine times out of ten,
It works.
And when it doesn't work,
It takes a while,
But I will finally tire of letting the wrench bonk me in the head again and again.
And what this really means is when I finally tire of wallowing,
I turn my attention elsewhere and off I go.
My feet paddling me forward on a still lake as the morning light returns to the world to do what it does best.
Shine.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Namaste.
