...[W]e also change like the weather, we ebb and flow like the tides, we wax and wane like the moon. We do that, and there's no reason to resist it. If we resist it, the reality and vitality of life become misery, a hell.
--Pema Chödrön, The Wisdom of No Escape & the Path of Loving-Kindness
Miri has pointed out to me that I often say that last week (or last month or last year) I had achieved (or avoided) a particular state or habit, but now I've backtracked and fallen into my old bad ways.
Since she pointed it out I hear myself saying it, but find it hard to think differently--first to let go of trying so hard to fix myself, to change, to be better--and second to let go of thinking that last week (or month or year) I had it, but now I've lost it again.
What if I could see these changes as weather, waxing and waning, ebbing and flowing? What if I weren't constantly monitoring my changes and labeling them as getting better and getting worse, being bad and being good? I believe it would... well, from this exact point and place in time, I believe it would make me better.
Round and round we go.
p.s. Bloglines readers, the image is worth clicking to... ;-)
1 comment:
yes, and this reminds me of the very helpful ice cycle images you gave me when i went on retreat in 2005- that things harden, melt, then harden again, that it's all part of a process. i hope the moons help you. they seem a good image.
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