Recent Reminders

My own acupuncturist & mentor said to me the other day, “There is nothing in the ancient texts about doing things! It’s all about being. We’re all really just here hanging out between birth & death.”

And he’s right. I had gotten all caught up in my to-do list and a sense of scarcity rather than abundance.

The fact is that there will still be things on the list when we die. There will still be dirty laundry.

And my life is rich with love and possibility.

That’s not to say that there’s not work to be done, food to be prepared, household chores to be maintained... and yet, it’s a completely different approach to think, I’ll just do a few of these things while I’m here hanging out between birth and death.

My 6 yr old son has just started taking capoiera lessons. He loves it. One thing his teacher stresses is the difference between being ice and being water. Ice resists things and gets hurt in the process. Water lets things flow through and around it and remains flexible. Now when we begin to have cross words in our house, my son will say to me, “Momma, be water.” And he’s right. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have to teach him things and guide him toward more positive behavior. It’s the way that I do it that makes the difference. And water gets a much better response than ice – as is true with any of us.

The Tao Teh Ching, chapter 8, begins by saying: “The highest form of goodness is like water. Water knows how to benefit all things without striving with them.”

So, as we face the energetic beginning of Summer this Saturday (May 5^th), I wish for us all a babbling brook of activity and joy and love while we’re hanging out here between birth and death.

Enjoy.