For those that don't know, I have been seeing a counselor for the past few months to help me sort out some things in my life. One of the things we are working on is Mindfulness and this book is a daily lesson in it. Even the subtitle reminds me of the mindfulness I need to follow "Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have."
Today's entry had me thinking so intently that I wanted to share it with you. It seemed more than appropriate for the start of a new year and I hope you will find it as helpful as I do.
All Fall Down
It was a snowy night, and Robert was recalling the time two springs ago when he was determined to paint the family room. Up early, he was out the door, to the hardware store gathering the gallons of red, the wooden mixing sticks, the drop cloths, and the one-time brushes that always harden, no matter what you soak them in.
He mixed the paint outside and waddled to the door with a gallon in each hand, the drop cloth under his arm, and a wide brush in his mouth. He began to chuckle in telling what happened, "I teetered there for a few minutes, trying to open the door, not wanting to put anything down. I was so stubborn. I had the door almost open when I lost my grip, stumbled backward, and wound up on the ground, red gallons all over me."
At this point, he laughed at himself, as he has done many times, and we watched the snow fall in silence. I thought of his little story all the whole way home. Amazingly, we all do this, whether with groceries or paint or with the stories we feel determined to share. We do this with our love, with our sense of truth, even with our pain. It's such a simple thing, but in a moment of ego we refuse to put down what we carry in order to open the door. Time and time again, we are offered the chance to truly learn this: We cannot hold on to things and enter. We must put down what we carry, open the door, and then take up only what we need to bring inside.
It is a basic human sequence: gather, prepare, put down, enter. But failing as we do, we always have that second chance: to learn how to fall, get up, and laugh.
- Meditate on some threshold you are having trouble crossing in your life. It might be at work, at home, in a relationship, or the doorway to greater peace.
- Breathe steadily and look to yourself to see if you are carrying too much to open the door.
- Breathe slowly and with each out-breath put the things you are carrying down.
- Breathe freely now and open the door.
---taken from The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo
I am putting down old hurts, old fears and old, outdated thoughts about my life. I am 41 and I have many things I want to do before I leave this earth but if I don't put down some of these things, I will never get them done and that is not acceptable to me any longer.
So what are your carrying that you need to put down
before you can enter the new year?
14 comments:
Wow. This is great. There are a lot of thresholds I'd like to pass through...and definitely too much in my arms.
Mindfulness. I've heard of it, but had not fully understood the idea. Thank you for posting the paint story.
Peace to us all in 2011.
xx
"take up only what we need to bring inside" now there's a saying I will remember. I've been seriously considering a tattoo on my wrist with the word breathe. May look into that.
Thanks for sharing DD. And if I haven't mentioned it lately, I flove you to pieces. and I truly hope you find the happiness that I know you bring to so many others.
I'm going to think about what I need to put down tonight, because tomorrow is a new day, I'd like to start it with a fresh start, a clean slate.
@Mrs. P - If I can take anything for you, just let me know.
@adonicass - I actually still have trouble understanding it at times - thereby my need for this book :) I wish you peace also
@inotu - Here is one of my favorite bloggers and her story about her breathe tattoo http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/2010/12/breathe.html
What a wonderful and thought provoking post, DD! Thank you so much. I have so many things on my plate, it is time I weed out what I actually need and what can wait for another year.
Amazing post and something I needed to hear, like many others of us out here reading your blog.
I hope you share more from "The Book of Awakening," by Mark Nepo. Sounds like a great book and probably one I need to take the time in my life to read it.
DD such an amazing post. Thank you. It is poignant for this time of year to reevaluate how we will be moving forward. I am definitely going to take this to heart and put stuff eown that I don't need.
Btw lots of love and thanks for your encouragement during my struggles in December. So nice to hear from you and even when i'm feeling snarky it makes me smile just thinking of you.
Oh wow, what a fabulous post, and indeed, very appropriate for the start of a year.
I dwell too much on the past,on the things I should've done, wasting my energy. That is the first habit I need to get rid of so that I could go forward. Thank you for this post, DD.I love you.
Such great advice and I'm sure many of us "know" this but don't live by this. Thank you for reminding us to let go of some of our frivolous burdens or cares, so we can move forward. Here's to a happy and healthy 2011.
xoxoxo
Suzie
*looks around* i like what you've done with the place.
dafne your blog is always the source of soothing words and straight forward advice - and for that i thank you.
merry new year darlin'
Um...wow. *sigh* I have a grudge or two that I just need to put down and leave there. Thank you for posting this, DD! *deep breath*
PS...I checked out the link about her "breathe" story. I have tears...
DD, I read this post the other day and didn’t post a comment, because I was at work. I later left work and went to the grocery store. I was bringing groceries in the house by myself with no help from my family, who ALL were home at the time. I proceeded to gather up all the bags and tried to shut the hatch; looking at the bags and up at the hatch, I laughed at myself because I remembered your post. I put down some bags, shut the hatch, picked up bags, walked to the front door of my house and put bags down to open the door. I was still laughing to myself! I think if I practiced this more often, I wouldn’t have some of the issues I have.
I think, for me, is the fear of the unknown or being disappointed by others. I have surprised myself in the past year with just taking a leap of faith and facing the fear. A couple of them were: 1) going to Forks with all of the Twitard’s, 2) was walking all the way to Hole in the wall from Rialto Beach by myself. (Ugg, that was a killer on my body and had to leave the Forks party early.) When I saw that I was half way to the hole, I just kept going. I amazed myself. Getting there was half the battle, coming back not hurt or water logged was even better.
Thank you for thinking of others in your post. I want to wish you luck on your journey. I had/have some things in my past/present that I had/need to change to “adventures” otherwise I think I would have gone bananas! (LOL) I will look into the book that your IL’s gave you. The last SH book I read was Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth. I had to break it down into layman’s terms in some parts because he just got too philosophical for me.
Sorry so long. Keep sharing and learning and know that you are not alone!
~Christine
I will comment on each of your comments tonight but for right now I just want to say WOO HOO!!!!! *dances around office* Rottymama you got it!!! Oh my goodness I am so happy. I love love love when things come back and remind you of what to do. I am so happy for you and so proud of you. You have made my day!
PS Make that family get up and help you next time too ;)
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