So Missy texts me from work the other day. She was nervous about getting her annual review that day.
I told her that she had nothing to worry about, that she was all that and a bag of chips, the greatest, awesome, free ice cream on a surprise day off, that sort of thing.
Not to be one of those people who likes to say "I told you so." but in this case, totally being that guy. So happy for her!
No, not like the movie. The other day I had something make me blindingly mad.
I know it seems like I never get angry. It's not true. What it was doesn't even matter. What does matter is how I dealt with it.
Then I bought myself breakfast, and while I sat eating it, I caught up a few blog entries, and moved on to thinking about something else, and noticed after how much better I felt.
I want to say that again, because it bears some repeating. I didn't stop being angry and then write some blog posts. It was just the opposite.
Ok, so what? Why am I telling you this? It's not even a little bit to tell you what to do.
It's because after-the-fact I was absolutely gob smacked at how it went down. Every once in a while I'm fortunate to see in high relief a thing I believe happen so clearly to me, for me, by my own actions.
Getting so mad sucked. But moving through it and transcending it felt amazing!
Masked-llama is a podcast listener. We've never met in person, but exchanged a few nice pieces of Fetlife mail.
It's no secret that I really love much anything to do with sharks. I talk about that all over the podcast, and let's be honest, pretty much everywhere else too.
It still always knocks me out when folks send me mail like the one he did the other day.
http://www.blankietails.com/products/adult-shark-bl… sorry if you have been inundated with these, but I stumbled across it and thought you might dig this.
As I told him, I dig it indeed! People can be so thoughtful.
I was having a bad day the other day. Or rather, I had started off that way. I had a bunch of things on my mind, worries, expectations, all sorts of shenpa.
Then, I remembered what I had done just a few hours before. When I woke up, my very first verbalized thought of the day was, "Oh good, another one."
Another what? Another day to be alive, experience whatever the day has for me, good or bad.
It's something I have done literally every single day since 1 Saturday morning when I was 13 years old.
I can't tell you the exact day I started. I can't even tell you why I started. I don't know. This was decades before I had ever heard of mindfulness, taoism, Buddhism, Alan Watts, or Pema Chodron.
But I'm glad I did. When I really turn and look at it, that long ago day was the beginning of my practice.
Some days that practice goes so smoothly. I'm at ease, peaceful, content. Other days, it's like falling out of a tree and hitting every branch on the way down, before landing hard, on my back with the wind knocked out of me.
That practice is happening, I'm engaged in doing it, all the time .
When I remembered this, and saw the shenpa I was hooked by, I gently smiled, and laughed at myself.
I felt instantly better.
My friend Masochista showed me this. i laughed. I scratched my head. I had no idea what I had just seen. Enjoy.
