Over the last while it seems as though even in a single day the emotional bookends are crazy different. On the one side of life it seems like things are going great, that pieces of the puzzle are working themselves to where they need to be. Then in a blink of an eye issues arise, drama ensues and life does a u-turn.
But it's really not a life u-turn, because at the end of it all I am still headed in the right direction.
This week I have opportunities for all over the map type stuff and Monday after work was no different. For awhile I have been venturing out and finding new experiences and practices that are helping me move closer to my center. These things that used to only make me giggle a little have caught my interest and made a believer of me for their ability to add quiet and quality to a life. These things are practicing yoga, gong meditation, or any meditation and drumming.
There is something so primal about sound and movement to bring us closer to the real self. I must admit at one time I was a skeptic, but then again, I also never believed that I deserved happiness until my friend Tim did a little LIFE101 class with me 16 years ago.
In the process of working towards an inner peace that is barely ruffled with the outward craziness of life, I discovered an amazing truth. I decide what upsets me and what only teaches me.
Best recent example is the celebration of Earth Day that I went to at a local winery. Lost Oak is a beautiful place and many family pictures have been made at several of their photo opp locations. The Gong/Mediation/Yoga Earth Day event was held outside in the grass. It was absolutely perfect and I enjoyed every moment of it.
But it was mentioned later that several folks were bothered with noise from the near by traffic, the bugs, and a few other little unplanned natural instruments that joined our event without planning. What I realized is that I decide what will bother me and what I will see as part of the soundtrack of my life.
We heard the traffic and yes it was a bit distracting at first, but then I started to notice how the cars sounded different and the noise that their tires made on the highway was interesting. My mind wandered back to the gong as I focused on the vibrations and I suddenly heard a symphony of frogs take over the music of this event. There were also strange sounds, crickets maybe, and a train. There were birds flying over head and so many noises and in the distance a siren. My mind was suddenly thrown back to the events of the past week where there had been so many emergency vehicles and their sounds present in tragedies of our world. Suddenly the sound was not a shrill bother, but instead a cry of rescue with a message of here we come to save the day.
I could have let all the noises that were not a planned part of the wonderful outdoor event upset me and clearly several people did, but instead I was grateful for them. All of the glorious wind, sky, moon and grass that was surrounding my event was worth whatever loudness and everyday sounds I had to allow to pass through my event.
I decide for me when I will be disturbed. I can choose to allow the flow of life to move me along or I can resist it and miss whatever bliss might be there for me to find. I choose...bliss.
Maybe it would have made a difference in the others experience if someone had said focus on the moment, gifts and choose to allow all the sounds to be a part of the music of your day. Or maybe they would still want to have had control and perfection. But they missed the real perfection. Life is noisy, full of unexpected sounds and even surprises that will not always be the music we had sought out, but at the end of the concert the pleasure we will have had and remember will be what we chose to get out of it...not what was planned.
I would never recommend someone start a exercise in contrast without studying the natural laws that govern our emotional connections to what shows up in our lives. I could not even begin to share that until I have grown to understand it more. What I can tell you is this...when I choose to dismiss what upsets me, see each thing that happens as the lesson I believe it to be, and when I focus on self love and forgiveness rather than any of those ugly-reactions, life just simply gets better.
My life is a lesson in contrast...and I think I finally heard it.
No comments:
Post a Comment