A cardinal sat on my deck railing pecking at the feed my husband put out. Stopping to watch felt like a meditation – relaxing and peaceful. Looking out further were more birds, the lake and the wind blowing bare tree limbs. This is the staff of life. This moment.
Each day I get up and do the deal; walk the dogs, pay the bills; figure out what’s for dinner. Trudge through January to arrive at February – and dream of spring flowers. Repetitive, everyday life.
A post on my social media this morning reminded me that I can make daily, persistent tasks a prayer or a trial.
One of my favorite cartoonists, Harry Bliss recently posted:
Yes, some days the struggle is real.
Then Pema Chodron reminds me:
“These days, many of us feel anxiety and gloom when we look around or read the news. This is natural and understandable, but at the same time it’s important to find ways to cultivate optimism. As it says in an aspiration that I recite often, “in relating to the future of humanity, I will be optimistic and courageous.”
Without having some sense of optimism, it’s easy to fall into some passive or defeatist attitude. Why try to do anything to improve the future if it’s hopeless anyway?
But according to the teachings on karma, the future is unwritten. What we do now does matter, not just to ourselves but to everyone who is part of this interconnection that we call Mother Earth. Even smiling at someone once can have tremendous ripple effect that goes out and out- who knows how far?
If this is the case, then think of how much we can affect the world by enthusiastically training in opening our hearts and minds, day after day.”
I’m reading a book by Robert M. Sapolsky called Behave: The Biology of Humans at our Best and Worst. Here’s an excellent TED Talk synopsis by the author:
Our biology and the environment we grow up in impacts us tremendously, influencing how we meet the world. It’s daunting to absorb the hurdles of the many, and the privilege afforded only a few. I don’t want to close my eyes to this disparity, as I suffer and profit from both. I’m grateful for whatever neurological synapses, neighborhoods and associations providence graciously bestowed me. Somehow an ingrained thirst for knowledge, weird sense of curiosity – flat-out doggedness goads me into considering that Pema Chodron is onto something.
So today I sit at my desk, and I consider what small ways I can affect the world and practice making chores a peace offering.
“Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.”
― Clarissa Pinkola Estés
