Time to Receive?
Thursday, June 20, 2013 at 7:36 AM “Your body is in constant and dynamic exchange with the body of the universe. Your mind is dynamically interacting with the mind of the cosmos… expressed as the Law of Giving and Receiving.” Deepak Chopra
I’ve been exploring the practice of ‘everything as gift’ for the past several weeks. It’s been present (chuckle, present = gift) for quite awhile as one of the first things that comes to mind each morning… How is this moment a gift? How will I be a gift today?
Right now, I’m wondering how yesterday (a day of mindless nothingness) could be a gift to anyone (myself included). I spent the day basically doing nothing—a practice I often recommend for others. Alas, something felt amiss. Much of the morning was spent staring at the heap of my novel manuscript. I searched (unsuccessfully) online for an inexpensive whiteboard to plot connecting themes. I took a bath, ate three ears of roasted corn for lunch, napped and watched several episodes of “The Starter Wife.” I felt flat, unmotivated, and uninspired.
Today, awake at 4:30 a.m., I wonder “How is that all gift?”
For one thing, the act of putting it in writing brings a stark reminder that I don’t want to live my life that way on a regular basis. Perhaps I was channeling my couch potato queen? Certainly, I wasn’t the busy bee yesterday. My ‘poor me’ person showed up for a while as I blamed an appointment for leaving me hanging, my husband for being out of town, and my kids for acting like ingrates… oh wait, maybe I need to turn the mirror around. Where’s my gratitude?
Thank goodness I got up and went to yoga first thing yesterday (and fed my body veggies instead of granola). It was a gray day in Seattle and I had few interactions with “live” people. On those kind of days, it’s easy to believe no one cares and dip into lonesome loser mode or get sucked into the tedium of normalcy. Personally, I have to work a little harder to be inspired on gray days with nothing official on the calendar… or I need to allow myself to sink into them and be grateful for the time to simply be.
What if the gift is simply being aware? Can that be enough? Must I analyze it ad infinitum? Maybe yesterday’s gift to the world was for me to stay under the radar. (Heaven knows my one interaction with my daughter was less than pleasant.)
Bottom line, I don’t have to know the gift! Can I really know it all? No way! Knowing-it-all is my personal mind trap. “I should know” rankles me every time… kind of like gray, aimless days. I know someone out there somewhere was “giving” yesterday. What if it was my turn to simply “receive”? Ah… now there’s a thought to ponder.
Kayce S Hughlett
Synchronistically and wonderfully... only moments after I pressed 'publish' on this post, I RECEIVED an offer to share my book, As I Lay Pondering, in a community that hadn't even been on my radar. How cool is that?
and about an hour later I received a check in the mail that I'd forgotten was supposed to be coming :-)
Being, Live it to Give it, Practice, Presence
Reader Comments (2)
maybe yesterday's gift of "nothingness" was really a breather for a week from now when you're storyboarding your novel like a madwoman on the obscenely inexpensive whiteboard you found, at a local store, no less???? ;)
brilliant, pam. i love that!!