Like unexpected money found in last season’s coat pocket, I discovered a scrap of paper in my wallet this morning.
It’s a quote I must have torn out of a magazine and tucked away for a rainy day, by Charlotte Joko Beck.
On this gray day that’s neither winter nor spring, when my mood seems to match the weather, I’m glad to have found it.
Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment.
This includes
every mosquito,
every misfortune,
every red light,
every traffic jam,
every obnoxious supervisor (or employee),
every illness,
every loss,
every moment of joy or depression,
every addiction,
every piece of garbage,
every breath.
This gets me thinking of my wise friend Dana. When I start complaining about various and sundry things/situations/people in life, she likes to say, “What’s the gift in this?”
The question always takes me by surprise, followed quickly by irritation at the seeming Pollyanna-ness of articulating an answer.
But sometimes I can catch the shadow of a teacher and a vague feeling of hopefulness.
The big question for the Last Year to Live is, of course, can I learn to accept even mortality itself as a teacher?
And how to do that?
Only by parceling down situations into minuscule moments, and then even further. Breath by breath. Atom by atom.
By the way, if you don’t know Charlotte Joko Beck, I’m very pleased to be making the introduction! It was only around age 40 that this mom of four — newly separated from her husband and working as a teacher and a secretary — began meditating.
She went on to write one of the most engaging books I’ve read about living fully in the face of the pesky challenges of daily living — relationships, work, fear, ambition, and suffering.
I love the interaction she had with an interviewer for this article:
Donna Rockwell: I read your books.
Charlotte Joko Beck: Oh you read. Well, give up reading, O.K.?
Donna Rockwell: Give up reading your books?
Charlotte Joko Beck: Well, they’re all right. Read them once and that’s enough. Books are useful. But some people read for fifty years, you know. And they haven’t begun their practice.
That said, I’m signing off to get on with it. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!
I both love and hate that her quote is so true. Thank you for sharing it!
Reminds me of this Eckhart Tolle quote from The Power of Now:
“The secret to life is to die before you die and find there’s nothing to be afraid of.”