Happy
Summer!
I’m
not trying to be morose here, but I have questions.
Contradictions.
One definition is: a direct opposition
between things compared; inconsistency. Inconstant: Changeable. Variable.
Sometimes
it seems like simply too much. We know, on an intellectual level, if we think
of it at all, that we will lose people during our life’s journey. But that
doesn’t prepare us. I guess I thought I would be old and gray and past caring.
Funny that.
Contradictions.
I wasn’t prepared for the asymmetry. The suddenness. The inexplicable. The
random nature of well, nature. How is it that some people endure a long
multitude of diminishing illnesses that lead to the inevitable… while others,
too, too young vanish in a breath? And every permutation and combination in
between. No one is assured a set journey. A set amount of time. It’s
inconstant. Inconsistent.
In
every single case the people remaining are in shock, grieving, trying to
process the loss. I don’t get it. Is this some cosmic decision made before we
are born? A decision to suffer…or not…for our soul’s growth? For someone
else’s? That maybe makes sense.
When
I was young, I desperately wanted to know what the future held. Now I know why most
of us don’t have that gift. It would not be a gift. There was wisdom in that.
So
what I say to myself every single day is: Be present. Pay attention. Be
grateful. Don’t complain. We have Light and Dark. We have Joy and Sorrow. We
have right now. Right
Now.
Possibly a Jack
Kornfield interpretation of the teachings of the Buddha. Either way, it’s good,
yes?
