There’s something about that hint of fall in the air, that gentle reminder summer is wrapping up, nudging you to quit goofing around and get back on with your life.
Had me a wee freak out the other day, tried to take my notebook down to the park to add to the zombie romance, instead found my head swimming with All The Things that I had to do, wanted to do, needed to do. Some of which were new and scary and overwhelming. My stab at fiction abandoned, I instead started making notes on all those things, trying to fit them in some set of priorities, what to focus on next, how to get around that obstacle.
Just getting it out of my head and on paper gave me some perspective and put all that tumble rolling around into something that fell into some manner of separateness on paper. It was no longer All The Things, All At Once. But just a bunch of things, all with their own varying needs and timelines.
Then I read this:
Can you deal with the most vital matters
by letting them take their course?
Can you step back from your own mind
and thus understand all things?
Which I mostly read as I giant Chill Sistah! from the universe. Why yes I can, and in part I already did. Stepping back from my monkey mind madness (in this case pulling the monkey monster out from under the bed and looking at it on paper in the broad daylight) gave me the perspective I needed and a good dollop of inner peace. These lines reminded me there is only this moment, and what is immediately in front of me. Relaxing and letting things take their course allows me the serenity and clarity to do the right thing at the right time and not worry so much about the rest.
The reality is most of the stuff I was fretting about was stuff I couldn’t really do anything about in that moment. They were things of other moments, involving other people, other resources I had yet to gather.
So instead, after dumping all my monkey mind stress onto a piece of paper with notes and arrows and priority codes, I just sat there, looking at trees and sky and river sliding slowly by, letting my last few thoughts bounce around and out (like the last few hiccups after a good cry), stepped back from my own mind and realized I can handle this. It wasn’t so overwhelming after all. I could just be still and do what was required in that moment, and like that river, letting the rest just flow.
Valerie Roney 