24th October, 2008 - I was so immersed in reading this book, FIVE WISHES by Gay Hendricks ... just wanted to share this story :
Always Elsewhere
"... I'd just had an experience of myself at my worst with regard to this trait. My daughter had spent hours constructing an elaborate Halloween costume. She had constructed out of cardboard a perfect replica of a corrugated metal trashcan. She spray-painted it green, to match the color of the cans that lined our street on trash pick-up day. She wore the can around her, and the lid served as her hat. The liner was made of a plastic trash bag, which she had also crafted into suspenders that held the can in place. Around the outside of the can she had stenciled "Candy Disposal Unit." Her costume was the receptacle into which people could throw their candy, and before the evening was over she could hardly stagger along, so heavy was her load. My description does not do justice to its quirky creativity or the hilarious effect it had on people who saw it. As I took her from house to house trick-or-treating, her costume caused a stir every time someone opened the door to us. Usually the reaction was along the lines of, "Hey, honey, you've got to come see this!"
"Yet instead of savoring this evening of home-made performance art, I found myself getting impatient after she visited just a few houses. I had other things to do - a speech I was working on, a backlog of phone calls to return. I began to give her "hurry-up" signals, and soon, to please me, she was virtually sprinting from house to house. When we returned home we were both exhausted."
"After I put her to bed I started to work on my speech but then realized I was so tired I couldn't think straight. What had I hurried for? Why had I rushed through such a sweet evening to get back to work? And now the rushing had wiped me out so I couldn't even work. I felt disgusted that I'd missed another magic moment of Amanda's childhood. Sadly, it hadn't been the first."
"I could feel the pinch of this issue on the personal level, in my relationship with Amanda, but I could also feel the spiritual consequences of hurrying through life. I was beginning to understand why the world's spiritual traditions stressed the value of being in the moment, celebrating the present, and living in the now. The magic of life happened in the now. The present was where the holy moments of life occurred, whether they were exalted peak experiences or the simple joys of holding a child's hand while she trick-or-treated."
I had on many occasions felt the same way... while I was physically there, spiritually, I was somewhere else ... kinda strike a cord here right? Somewhere along the way I learned to take it easy even as life sped up. Learning to savor the moments of life is an ongoing process, so I hope I'll always be learning to savor more and more... to go from always wanting to be someplace else to always feeling there's no place I'd rather be, moments that give life its radiant glow ^_^
Always Elsewhere
"... I'd just had an experience of myself at my worst with regard to this trait. My daughter had spent hours constructing an elaborate Halloween costume. She had constructed out of cardboard a perfect replica of a corrugated metal trashcan. She spray-painted it green, to match the color of the cans that lined our street on trash pick-up day. She wore the can around her, and the lid served as her hat. The liner was made of a plastic trash bag, which she had also crafted into suspenders that held the can in place. Around the outside of the can she had stenciled "Candy Disposal Unit." Her costume was the receptacle into which people could throw their candy, and before the evening was over she could hardly stagger along, so heavy was her load. My description does not do justice to its quirky creativity or the hilarious effect it had on people who saw it. As I took her from house to house trick-or-treating, her costume caused a stir every time someone opened the door to us. Usually the reaction was along the lines of, "Hey, honey, you've got to come see this!"
"Yet instead of savoring this evening of home-made performance art, I found myself getting impatient after she visited just a few houses. I had other things to do - a speech I was working on, a backlog of phone calls to return. I began to give her "hurry-up" signals, and soon, to please me, she was virtually sprinting from house to house. When we returned home we were both exhausted."
"After I put her to bed I started to work on my speech but then realized I was so tired I couldn't think straight. What had I hurried for? Why had I rushed through such a sweet evening to get back to work? And now the rushing had wiped me out so I couldn't even work. I felt disgusted that I'd missed another magic moment of Amanda's childhood. Sadly, it hadn't been the first."
"I could feel the pinch of this issue on the personal level, in my relationship with Amanda, but I could also feel the spiritual consequences of hurrying through life. I was beginning to understand why the world's spiritual traditions stressed the value of being in the moment, celebrating the present, and living in the now. The magic of life happened in the now. The present was where the holy moments of life occurred, whether they were exalted peak experiences or the simple joys of holding a child's hand while she trick-or-treated."
I had on many occasions felt the same way... while I was physically there, spiritually, I was somewhere else ... kinda strike a cord here right? Somewhere along the way I learned to take it easy even as life sped up. Learning to savor the moments of life is an ongoing process, so I hope I'll always be learning to savor more and more... to go from always wanting to be someplace else to always feeling there's no place I'd rather be, moments that give life its radiant glow ^_^
No comments:
Post a Comment