Fortune for the Day – “With our thoughts we make the world.” – Buddha
I am getting sort of fatigued from feeling this fear, frustration and worry about the coronavirus and other troubling headlines. I think that this is a good sign. I think that I am slowly climbing out of my “lowlies” into, perhaps, anger. Of course, part of this anger is because we were supposed to have new garage doors installed today and the doors did not make it on to the truck, for reasons unbeknownst to seemingly anyone. I am sure that my surge of anger is probably related to that event, as well, but I still think that there is more to it.
I once worked for a woman, who sadly lost her brother to cancer. She sunk into a deep depression for which she basically sat on the couch and stared into nothingness, for months on end. Every day she would call me and she would casually mention that she would not be coming into the office, like this was a novel, unusual surprise. Then one day, after many, many weeks, my employer popped into the office with a swirling energy that was an exponential of her already high powered, energetic nature. She was full of ideas, and visions for the future. She was radiant. She was back to herself, and then some. We quickly got back into the groove of her business. A few weeks later after her return to work, we got to talking about her “come back” and she told me that she just got sick of feeling miserable. She got sick of herself. She got sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. Her plain disgust with her misery, propelled her off of her couch. My boss all of the sudden realized that she could not spend even one more day sitting on her couch. Now, my employer had every right in the world to feel her deep pain and she never once lamented about any wasted time on the couch. She needed to process her great sadness, in just the way she did it and in just the amount of time that it took for her. Then, my boss took all of that stored energy that had gotten recharged into her body and her being, as she sat stoically and quietly and patiently on her couch, and she put that stored energy towards sideline businesses that honored her brother’s memory and made her feel passionate about life again. She also used that time on the couch to reflect on things that weren’t working in her life and she then made those changes, even moving from a home that she had lived in, for decades.
This is an extreme example of something that I think we all do, throughout our lives, at different levels. Our energy levels spike and wane, according to how we are feeling and thinking and reacting and doing. We are not static by nature, as individuals or even as a whole humanity. I think a big part of any major victory or healthy change for anybody or any society, is that we get tired and bored of ourselves when we are in a standstill. We can only wallow so much before something has to give. I think that we are at a crescendo point here, as a whole. And I think that we are all about to rise up from our couches, and to target and funnel that still, but charged energy to a rising up of feeling good, feeling energetic, feeling passionate, feeling positive and feeling whole again, despite of all of the seemingly negative events happening all over the world.
I noticed this morning, when I took my dogs out, that the birds were singing their symphonies, the wind was gently blowing my chimes, the water was flowing steadily in the lake, and there were the usual, beautiful groups of deer quietly chewing on grass, on the way to school today. Nature was just doing its every day thing, oblivious to news and fears and politics and disappointments and sadnesses. We sometimes (strike that), we often forget that we are part of nature, too. Our minds are amazing, but sometimes it may be best to shut off the minds, sit on the couch and gaze out of the window, at nature doing its thing. That may be the best thing that we can do for ourselves, until the energy builds and aims itself towards the passions, the interests, and the miracles, that make us feel good again.
“Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while,
a great wind carries me across the sky.”
— Ojibwe saying
