So I was about to get all stressed out about something. I was still in bed; the sun was not yet up. So I did what I do a lot of mornings. I lay there and reflected on the dilemma of being human. It ain’t easy and we go about it in the wrong way.

We are prone to get all dressed up when there is no place to go. We feel naked unless we do something about our problem of the day, so we trick ourselves out in thoughts about what to do about it. I often feel vulnerable, so I reach into my wardrobe for thoughts of safety.

If I do my hair just right, that may help. If I wear something attractive, if I put up with the uncomfortable shoes, if I say the right things but I don’t know what they are, and I don’t like those people anyway. Wait! Stop! There you go again. Don’t move. Lay there naked and shivering. Bear the pain.

The mind is about solving problems. If you feel fear, the mind jumps in to solve things by taking thought. Someone said “take no thought for the morrow.” Truer words were never spoken, but something in us is deaf. Yeah, it’s the mind. Never hears a word the spirit says.

So now we see the dilemma. Thinking leads to stress and now we are told to stop thinking and we can’t. Mama said there’d be days like this.

If you have read this far, kudos, kiddo. The right thing to do is to just stay naked in the now. Be merely here. Let the mind rage on in its unhelpful attempts to help you. Try patting your head and rubbing your stomach while the thoughts rage on. Be naked. Be here. Be now.

Vicki Woodyard