I am a meditator. I don’t do it as part of a yoga practice or a religious devotion. I do it to dump the junk in my head. That’s as lofty as it gets right now. Twice each day, I focus on my breathing, let as many of my monkey chatter thoughts go as I can, and put myself in a state of mental neutral. Is it bliss? Well, in a way. It’s freedom from all of the debris your brain is trying to catalogue and store as if it were valuable. I feel relaxed and … clean when I’m done, as if I’ve turned my head back into a zen garden from the cat box it had become.
Life is short and very, very precious. Susan Edlinger realized this through loss, redefined herself, and changed her whole world through a shift of perspective (the story is here). Surf’s up!
I have a marvelous, amazing life … or at least I would have, if I could leave it alone and stop trying to improve it. What I have been leading instead is the “near miss” life … the almost-enough-money-I-should-be-thinner-you-should’ve-done-that-instead haunting of something better – something I think I need or want or might have had if I hadn’t botched it. Tired, irritable and still utterly lacking in perfection, I have decided to be splendid. I mean really and truly splendid … fabulous, even. First burst of resolve: fewer excuses and more champagne.