On Mind Fullness

With minds full and all keyed up about the state of the world and the coming presidential election, my friends and I compare notes about our studied efforts to find peace of mind.  It quickly becomes apparent that we are not very good at it.  The strategies all look and sound so easy on YouTube and yet there is something in each of us that resists.

I sit for meditation, and Om… my mind thinks about what I am going to do next or maybe eat next.  I save my mantras for driving in urban traffic where the anarchists are equipped with wheels and probably have guns under their seats.  I silently chant to the speeding driver behind me who is also on his phone: “Please don’t hit me.  Please don’t hit me.”  Or beg the traffic lights:  “Please stay green, stay green…”

I call a friend to see if she is doing any better.  “How was your meditation class last night?”

“I don’t know, I tuned in and fell asleep.”  This is a woman who has mastered napping.  She could fall asleep during child birth, but it’s not a strategy that will help us in rush hour traffic or save us from the detention camps to which all Democratic voters will be sent should the election go a certain way.

I check in with another friend who is taking an eight-week Tai Chi class.  I find no wisdom here.  She is miserable and now dreads the dawn of each new morning.  Being the super-responsible sort, she pushes herself to be tuned in by 8 AM and to attend every class even though it is virtual.  Old fears of being denied graduation due to poor attendance haunt her. 

For this woman who is accustomed to getting things done, the slow motion is pure torture.  She is reminded of having been a cheerleader in her youth:  “This is like doing all of the cheers in slow motion.” She finds her peace of mind when the program ends:  “Thank God that’s over,” she says.  I make a mental note that God does answer prayers, and I wonder where mine are on His to-do list for I am pretty faithful about prayer which is mostly me begging and pleading along with giving God a list of people and things that need fixed, like He doesn’t already know…

My friends and I are no better at mindfulness practices than we are at sky diving, but we are better practiced.  There is a healing that comes through our failures.  They become rich fodder for conversations that provide us with plenty of laughter.  We give voices to what troubles us and release it in howls and giggles. Sometimes we laugh until we can no longer speak which is probably the answer to someone else’s prayers.  Drained of our stress, we carry on—at least until the next news bulletin and the next YouTube video.

Perhaps our true natures are revealed in the self-preservation methods we choose:  rest and disconnect, ask questions and seek answers, beg and plead even, get things done and cheer on others.  Laugh until we feel better. 

Let’s face it--we need to look after ourselves.   We need to get out the rubbish we ingest before it festers inside us leading us to the very behaviors we despise.  So, back to begging and pleading…

My  prayer today is that there are enough of us who are keyed up about the state of the world and not just badly practicing mindfulness but also trying to  live the definition of mindful:   watchful, aware, careful, attentive, sensible, and  thoughtful.  I say let’s make that a ballot requirement.

Om…

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