When my kids were young and we'd be driving somewhere... and they'd inevitably ask Are we there yet? I came up with an answer that worked pretty well.
One day in the car I held up my hand and spread my thumb and index finger wide apart and said, "This is how far we're going."
Then I pinched my thumb and index finger much closer together and said, "This is how far we've driven so far."
From then on they'd ask me how far "finger-wise" we'd gone or had left to go.
Occasionally one of them still uses "finger-wise" to explain something to me, which yes, I love.
Walking the talk
In my experience with the 7-day-no-complaining-no-criticizing-project from the other week (links in the p.s.), I did a whole lot of thinking as I began to replace the hole left in my habits by the absence of my complaining and criticizing.
I was pretty much (and still am) surprised by the relief of letting myself off the hook for all I was taking on in my complaining and criticizing, for one thing.
And for another, I've found I'm more mindful, which makes sense.
But also, I eventually just got in a better mood. And I like it.
I'm finding myself more willing to be happy about things that reliably annoyed me prior to "the project," and therefore affected my ability to enjoy myself in various situations... Usually related to being around other people and my inner need for them to think and behave according to my preferences. Kind of yuk, but there you go.
So we went to a holiday party the other evening, and instead of silently criticizing people for how they may have voted or what-the-hell-ever, I noticed that in letting go to some degree of my expectations of people, I could genuinely enjoyed them instead. It was a nice, well planned party, and honestly, everyone was pretty much doing their best just by being there and in good cheer. That should be enough.
So I was walking my own talk, which I certainly intend to do all the time, but sometimes it's theory and not actual practice that trips us up in life.
But finger-wise...
But back to my explorations during our 7-day project.
It's occurring to me these days/these years that finger-wise, our life is a speck of a thing.
Not that I think our life doesn't matter, because I believe it really, really does.
But we humans are part of a biggggg, lonnnnnnggggg continuum... we're not very close to "there" yet.
Plus, our body toting around our divine, universally connected soul is a really big damn deal. And though our experience as a human in our very-cool body is amazing, it's not at all the end game.
Or at least it's not the end game according to the searching and exploring I've been doing.
We're part of a cosmic miracle, is what this is.
Time is relative, our souls are eternal, there is no hell or evil or judgment outside of our own making, our collective consciousness is one big entity and part of All That Is, and we're not victims of a cruel universe, but instead integral creators in a loving universe.
And shoot, this isn't even the only universe.
So either we're just chemical accidents with a lot of emotions, or we're a creative part of this whole cosmic thing we're bouncing around in.
When we look out, we look in
So, finger-wise, we're at the just-a-pinch stage.
There's a helluva lot more going on in life, and apparently there always will be according to my wanderings.
But seriously, we all know that when we looked at that gorgeous full moon the other night, there's something more. We could feel it.
We feel it when we're looking at a sunset or sunrise, when we're sitting by the ocean and even sitting by a fountain.
We're part of something more, and it's not terrible. We long for it and reach for it.
And in this looking out in our longing, we're actually looking inward.
Enjoy wandering around this dark and holy season, shiny Reader.
I'll talk to you again soon.
Here's to being who we want more of in the world
I have so much love and appreciation for you.
Keep on shining, my friend,
Coco
p.s. The gift for those who most recently participated in 7-day-no-complaining-no-criticizing project goes out in two days!
p.p.s. If you want to join this project starting now—just reply to this email. (It's not a difficult project, as it turns out.) Here's email 1, email 2,email 3, and email 4 to catch you up.
MINDING THE MIND STARTS WITH RECLAIMING YOUR MENTAL PROPERTY
