The first thing I notice when I experience a moment of relative calm and quiet inside my head is how utterly uncalm the rest of my head moments are. It is honestly remarkable to me that we humans manage to be present in the world, with how much thinking we do.
So many voices tell us we are what we do, that our worth and our mere existence is judged by our actions, that we are here to leave a legacy, to earn rewards, and that there is a right way to do things. So we do, and we judge, and we are judged, and then we think and do some more, always trying to get it right. We run after something, and when we don’t find what we’re looking for, we run faster. We go crazier and crazier.
And then somebody suggests that we slow down, maybe even stop for a moment, perhaps ponder a while, and simply be. Follow a bird. Notice our breathing. Listen sincerely to another person. Stay quiet. And in those moments maybe we are like a person watching the sun come out after a storm. Somehow the appearance of the sun makes us truly notice the storm, and how we felt when we were being blown and blasted and lashed and soaked.
And then we probably think, the sun is right and the storm is wrong. But no: they are each as “real” as the other. Ours is simply to be present with each, with whatever is going on, without attaching or getting swept up or labeling one as good and the other as bad. That way lies endless suffering.
So yes, the mind is a crazy place sometimes. We probably create our own storms. We certainly create our own suffering. But maybe we can just be. In the sun. In the storm. In between, in neither, or in both. We start where we are, stay alert and awake, and go through it all as connected as we can be.
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