Being....

Poor little blog, left to keep itself company for sol long! There has been so much writing going on for other publications and so much life rushing me around that this little space in my heart has been neglected! I have a New Year’s resolution to keep, “time to do the little seemingly unimportant things that give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.” So here I am, answering my own call and writing my blog again, writing ‘just because’ and for no other rhyme, reason or deadline.  The other warm fuzzies are getting back to a little song writing, playing my djembe, spending time doing a large and very difficult puzzle, and sitting quietly in the garden watching nature! These are my things, they have no purpose other than to please me, and sometimes in the busy “doing” of life we forget that it’s ok to just enjoy the journey! We feel we must be achieving, completing, building, purposefully doing or just plain working!! But life is also just itself, life, and there are so many things we lose along the way when we forget to just be, and being is such a pleasant activity!

And really, I teach meditation these days, (which is a purposeful warm fuzzy!!) and such things as “just being” are pertinent with regard to mindfulness, because one of the main ideas that motivates the practice of mindfulness is the idea of ‘doing’ less, and ‘being’ more. Moreover, from the perspective of ‘being,’ so much of what passes for productive activity looks hyperactive, hubristic and pointless.

Lao Tzu said, “Search your heart and see. The way to do is to be.” So I am being….and right now I am being in the writing of this blog and it feels good!

Those who know me, know how much I love the writing of Kafka (especially “The Castle”) and it is Kafka who said, “You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, and it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”

He is saying that as individuals and collectively we are missing out because we tend to do too much of what we see as purposeful activity. There is some gentle irony in the fact that those who most value ‘getting stuff done’ are often not so much unwilling, but rather unable to sit still. The one thing they can’t do, is to just be.  So this year I aim to “be” and in so doing, to enjoy some idle nourishing moments….and play with the poor little blog! Come join me!!