May as well try and catch the wind

I’m a bit spiritual, but not at all religious.

I’ve been studying and practicing a form of secular Buddhism – Shambhala – and getting quite a lot of wisdom and insight from it.

Among other things, that there is a basic goodness to existence, to stillness, to consciousness. Each person and thing contains that basic goodness.

And that nothing at all lasts. Fighting against that fact can cause a lot of our suffering.

So from that perspective, I present this quote that gave me actually goosebumps and chills:

I sit with the children of our congregation and I tell them about the God of the bathroom floor. I tell them that Jesus’ way is love and that there are plenty of folks screaming his name who aren’t following the way, and that there are plenty of people who’ve never uttered Jesus’ name who are following the way of love beautifully. I teach them that faith is not a club to belong to, but a current to surrender to.

-Love Warrior, Glennon Doyle

Holy shit, that’s good.

It fits in with what I’ve observed: that I tend to want to control, to grasp onto, to preserve. And that this does not work, because nothing stays.

In the chilly hours and minutes
Of uncertainty, I want to be
In the warm hold of your loving mind
To feel you all around me
And to take your hand, along the sand
Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind

-Catch the Wind, Donovan

I used to wonder, in a desperate way, why nobody ever filmed productions of plays. Not habitually, in any case. “You’re creating this incredible thing, bringing together dozens of people and costumes, sets and makeup, lights….and for a two-week run, maybe a few hundred people see it?”

It felt like such a waste.

I have begun to understand, now: Each moment is what we get. That’s all.

This moment begins, and then it dies, and the next one begins.
This hour. This day. This friendship. This love affair. This lifetime.

It begins, and it ends. That’s the real truth.

And so, the real value isn’t in saving this forever. The real value is seeing this while it happens.

(Special thanks to Pema Chödrön for her wonderful book, “How we Live is How we Die“.)