Content

 

Recently I lived a morning in the library sipping an unexpectedly delicious smoothie brimming with a bounty of fruit, veggies, and seeds.  The room was a sacrosanct silent.  The white-light air offered a blessedly cool repose from the swelter of July outdoors.  I sat solo with my laptop surrounded by words wound in lines hunkered between hard covers standing as an attentive guard.  I was content.

At dictionary.com I find content can be
1.  an adjective meaning satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else; mentally or emotionally satisfied with things as they are; willing to accept circumstances
2.  a noun meaning the state of feeling or being contented; satisfaction; peace of mind

I documented the moment in notes that sit on my desk today that indicate being so satisfied made me pause.  Granted, my library is magical.  It wins awards. It employs fairy godmothers of children’s literature that satisfy every topic wish.  It is a respite for writers seeking solitude like myself, city-dwelling homeless, and corporate board meeting planners alike.  We all appear to find peace of mind there, if our expressions are true.   But the library does not magically transport us away from our respective lives. 

I think I was surprised because nothing BIG was happening.  All was simple and everyday and wonderful and only planned to last an hour.  It is our natural state – peace of mind.  We arrive alive in it but then bury it in experiences.  Piling on of the past and furtive seeking of the future distract us from the one single present moment in which we can be content.  

Did I suggest our natural state is peace?  Yes.  Yes, I did. What about responsibilities and war and poverty and immorality and economic doom and deadlines and ethical governments and proper nutrition?  Is the idea of peace of mind, of being emotionally satisfied a ruse?  Right THIS moment I can only remember it as a feeling from that day because my monkey mind is swinging from thought tree to tree with this day’s duties plus the two interruptions per minute from life in my house!   

But I know moments of not wanting.  I can shut my eyes, look inward and appreciate on the inner level I have been there.  Being content is a practice, an intention, a habit. Being content does not distract from motivation or work or getting things done or improving one’s situation or allowing ourselves at times appropriate dissatisfaction.

I’ve struggled with giving myself permission to feel content. My mind wrestles with feeling that I do not deserve or am not good enough yet or that admitting contentment belittles life’s real difficulties.  Instead, we might all give ourselves consent to be content in little sacred moments that just may lead to longer ones.

When you are content to be simply yourself
and don’t compare or compete, everybody
will respect you. 
                                                - Lao Tzu 

Be content to seem what you really are. 
                                                - Marcus Aurelius

 

 

 

Work

Why should we keep our bodies and minds healthy and in balance?  So we can do our work.

 

I predict a widening of eyes at my assertion.  Reaction, perhaps, to the narrow meaning we attach to work.  Work may be finding a job, performing its requirements (happy about it or not), collecting your pay.  Work, indeed, might include this employment activity but is much more. 

Work, as a noun, is defined at dictionary.com.
1.  Exertion or effort to produce or accomplish something; labor; toil
2.  Something on which exertion or labor is expended; a task or undertaking
3.  Productive or operative activity
4.  Employment, as in some form of industry, especially as a means of earning one’s livelihood

Work’s dictionary definition says some of what I am thinking about.  It does not though touch on how we decide what our task or undertaking should be.  In yogic philosophy, meaningful work is guided by dharma.  Dharma is woven with threads of one’s own unique qualities, duty, vocation, morally upright behavior, the unique qualities of the universe.  Dharma is rooted in Truth.  One’s life purpose, of which our exertion to accomplish something is part, is ours to consider. 

Work evolves through ages and stages of life.  A baby’s work.  A monk’s work.  A parent’s work.  A housekeeper’s work.  An inventor’s work.  A chef’s work.  A doctor’s work.  A poet’s work.  An accountant’s work.  Productive activity abounds!  We might assume several roles at once.  There are tasks, sometimes seemingly menial like laundry or paperwork or budgets, we complete under the umbrella of our work that may not seem replete with deep meaning.  We might endure a so-so job as a stepping stone to something better or a means to afford different use of time otherwise.

Our dharma is active, energetic, and a source of happiness.  If we do NOTHING our Self knows.  Stillness is not necessarily doing nothing nor is constant toil always accomplishing something.  Internal stillness might look like relentless activity on the outside.  No one can say sitting still is inappropriate or that twelve hour workdays are inherently wrong either.  Every person’s work is different, theirs to determine and execute by looking inward daily. Self-study and quiet are essential to discover our work.

Work relates to our inherent value and our connectedness to one another.  Our Truth is unchanging, constant, eternal, and loving and does not modify to suit desires, aversions, prior conditioning or social pressure.  Meaningful activity helps us see our value.

I realize that higher levels of thought are easier when basic needs are met and that generally needs money.  Yet, I believe we can remember our dharma and follow it in work.  We might merely ask, “What is my work, and what tasks does it offer me today?” 

 

                                Nothing will work unless you do.
                                                                - Maya Angelou

                                Far and away the best prize that life
                                has to offer is the chance to work hard
                                at work worth doing.
                                                                - Theodore Roosevelt

 

 

 

Interdependence

My Fourth of July festivities as a kid occurred as a military musician’s daughter.  In my fond recollections they were a picnic, patriotic music and a laser show culminating with my dad directing the firing of canons for the 1812 Overture and a fireworks show.  The salty, sweat-scented memories are watermelon red, gun smoke white and uniform blue.  I was proud.  Of my dad.  Of my country. The Independence of America was imbedded with family celebration that included the community around us: friends and strangers, living and dead.  Together, all these people made my experience great.

Interdependence, a noun, is defined at dictionary.com as the quality or condition of being interdependent, or mutually reliant on each other.

The people who created the July 4^th event were connected from 1776 to present day.  In the 20^th century we sang along with the show, “I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free.  And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me. I’ll gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.”  Interdependence did not historically or presently detract from freedom.  Instead, I think it enriched/enriches it.  America’s forefathers fought so that we might have a more perfect union knowing independence is not free nor easily won but intended to allow a better life for the collective citizens of the new nation they envisioned and its posterity.

Interdependence is rooted in the truth of our human connectedness, the real and ever-present certainty that we thrive when we work, celebrate, mourn and rejoice together.  This requires that each individual bring to the table the best they have to offer, whatever it may be – the more varied the better! Independence should not be greedy, lazy, hateful nor narrow-minded, but passionate, purposeful and compassionate.

This connection of self to others in no way diminishes individuals nor undermines independence.  It acknowledges that many hands make light work or a band of skilled hunters often bring back more food than a lone huntsman or a circle of quilters make a warm bed faster than someone stitching solo or educating one person benefits all they contact and a single person’s prayers can produce change.   

To say a person should never endeavor alone is too extreme, the greatness of individual generals, single inventers, stunning orators, courageous writers bears merit.  But, in order for one to rise, there must be multitudes that bear arms under direction, accept new ideas, lend their ears, collect their voices to sing and shout.  We all count.  We all matter.  We all have duty to ourselves and to each other as independent but social creatures - people in a state of beneficial interdependence.

We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness. 
                                                                                - Thich Nhat Hanh

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness
of the interdependence of all theses living beings which are all
part of one another and all involved in one another.
                                                                                - Thomas Merton

 

 

 

Flexible

Occasionally when folks discover I teach yoga they state, “I’d love to try yoga, but I am not flexible.”  I assert that my gentle yoga classes do not require flexibility and can increase it over time.  Bridled with fear of how far away they perceive their toes to be, some seem to believe being flexible is a thing one is born with or not.  

 

Flexible (adjective) is defined at dictionary.com.
1.  capable of being bent, usually without breaking; easily bent
2.  susceptive of modification or adaptation; adaptable
3.  willing or disposed to yield; pliable

I get it, really.  I myself do not possess copious in-born elasticity.  Pictures of pretzel poses performed in second skin outfits can scare us away from our bodies. My history does not include personal fitness, sports or being a dancer or gymnast.  Yoga arrived first in spiritual devotion (bhakti yoga) and knowledge seeking (jnana yoga).  Still searching, I began to practice yoga postures in a class where, over time, I connected all the stuff in my head and my heart to my body.   As a dedicated couch potato it had never dawned on me that I could find joy - yes, joy - in physical training. 

 

What a revelation! Acknowledging all bodies, just like personalities, are different and a wide range of natural available movement exists from one person to another, as embodied beings (like all humans, we have a body) moving, stretching and strengthening increases wellbeing.  I lapped this up like a cat at a saucer of cream.

 

My hamstrings and heartstrings cooperate in tandem because I tend them, coax them kindly, and deliver to them challenge and rest.  All yoga poses may not be available to every body.  So what?  While we are embodied, we are NOT merely our bodies and certainly not the bodies of others.  Being flexible is much more than arching into a backbend.  Yet, let me be clear in my expression, increasing physical flexibility helps us learn about mental flexibility in our daily living.  How important is it to be capable of being bent, without breaking, as we control our reactions to life’s circumstances or other people’s actions? How beneficial is it to our relationships to be disposed to yield in shared spaces, not as pushovers but as strong, adaptable selves?  Over time, bending toward our toes or leaning our bodies deeply right and left gives us physical manifestations of effort that can create habits we take into everyday living.

 

Being flexible feels like something we want, it’s the “over time” part that gives pause. We deceive ourselves if we wait for flexibility to preclude effort in our bodies or our minds.  We become pliable through intention to be so and we rob ourselves if we reason being flexible physically or emotionally does not require practice.  

 

 

                                                A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind.
                                                                                                          - Lao Tzu

Be ready, be flexible, be poised to respond
when the time is right.
                                                         - Dr. Wayne W. Dyer