Life is stunning and full of grace, and life is complicated and terrible. It’s hard to know what to think about it all sometimes.
In these times, simplicity is medicine. Moments of ordinary appreciation. Mindfulness as a wise and available still point within our solitary and collective storms.
I personally would do well with multiple periods of more formal meditation practice throughout the day, but I almost never do it. I do, however, more frequently catch myself waking up to individual moments—moments of such utter simplicity they could easily slip by like a sneeze—and these moments both soothe and snap me awake.
I’m lost in worried thoughts that feel catastrophic and real, and then I notice my breath quietly entering and leaving my body. I’m momentarily stunned that it just happens like this. I take in the breath, look out the window, and click…things get simple and quiet for a moment. Even if just for a few moments, the thoughts have left.
My kid comes home from school in a mood and my husband’s out for the night and I need to prep dinner and deal with the dogs and I’m suddenly very tired with a bit of a headache. I’m tempted to check out, at least mentally, on it all: play music too loud, push a podcast at my brain—anything but nothing, anything to distract.
And then I notice my kid’s freckles and then the blue eyes and the eyelashes and whoosh…my heart is pulsing, for a few seconds, with the reality of our shared life. This moment, however exhausting and imperfect, is that life.
I’m at the grocery store in a hurry, and everyone seems in my way and unhappy, and I spot a man bent over his shopping list, an earnest grip on his cart. I feel a flash of wonder at what his life is all about. What’s on the menu? Is anyone waiting at home?
Appreciating the ordinary simplicity of everyday life is the stuff of deathbed confessionals. The fabric of a life well lived. Many of us, if we’re lucky, do finally get it in the end.
I know meditation isn’t a competitive sport. We’re not aiming to get anywhere. But still, I do hope to get it a little sooner than the end.
So today, simplicity. Practice. Presence. Let’s sit for a few minutes together.
xo,
Christa
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