Checking Out….


It’s important for you to see what you are up against if you are on the path of awakening. For example, traffic was bad as I set off to the library and grocery. Only one lane was open on the road I take out of the neighborhood. Since this is a hilly two-lane road, people were understandably impatient with the slowness of the traffic movement.

I had library books to return before I went to the grocery. Then at the grocery, just as I had finished unloading my items, a lady bustled up to the checker saying that she hadn’t bought any turkey! I stood there while the line grew behind me. The checker looked through all of the woman’s bags to see if she did indeed have some turkey. That was after she read every item on the receipt.

When my turn came, the checker was so flustered that she had to ask me to repeat putting my card into the machine that verifies it. I said to the woman in line behind me, “This is all happening because I am in a hurry.” She smiled broadly and said, “Yeah, that’s how it is.”

On the way home I felt dread and anger even as I anticipated having to creep along the part of the road home where there is only one lane open. Once home, I felt relief.

If you ignore seeing how impatient you are, you won’t see how it is tied to every other negative emotion. All of them are connected. Just like love and marriage, you can’t have one without the other.

The same is true of positive emotions. Don Theo stresses the importance of gratitude and to feel it, one must be conscious.

I hope you are enjoying what I write these days. It runs the gamut, doesn’t it? I feel like just talking about spiritual things is of little help to me or anyone else.

Despair lurks in everyone’s psyche; it really does. No one gets out alive and no one can stay cheerful all of the time. When you see this, it softens you a little like ice cream left out on the counter. No one likes a complainer; it’s not about complaining. It’s about observing your complaining. The observer doesn’t have a stake in anything. It doesn’t care if you eat too much ice cream or too much chocolate. It doesn’t care if you are scared silly about irrelevant things. That is why you need to invite it in more often.

Vicki Woodyard

One Comment

  1. “I feel like just talking about spiritual things is of little help to me or anyone else.”

    When I reviewed theater, I read one reviewer who said all he needed to do was describe what he saw, and then the reader would know what he thought of the play.

    In walking us through the details and challenges of an ordinary day, I feel like you’re also recording some spiritual lessons that we might overlook in our day.

    Reply

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