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Last weekend, at this meditation retreat, the woman leading it said, “I don’t pray for anything anymore.” I was just astounded at the simple beauty of this. She was basically saying, there’s no way of knowing if what you pray for is going to end up being a good thing or a bad thing. She didn’t mean don’t strive for things, but don’t pin all your hopes on getting them, because maybe you will and it won’t be pretty. So live your life, try to get what you want, but focus on playing the cards you’re dealt, rather than getting the cards you think you want. I so instantly loved this I called out, “I’M NOT PRAYING FOR ANYTHING ANYMORE EITHER.”
Then the other night, I’m watching the TV show Criminal Minds and one of the characters quotes Arthur Rubinstein. “There is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.”
It’s like the universe is trying to tell me I’m made the right call.
I’ve had the same sort of synchronicity of late. A recurring message about being in the moment. I’m reading “The Silent Question” by Toni Packer, and was stuck by this little gem – “Can we die to each moment so there is a freshness of living that is not possible if we keep carrying around everything that has happened?”
I’d love to read more about your meditation practice if that is something you’d be willing to share on your blog 🙂
I used to pray for a lot of things. Praying was my way of telling the universe that it was dead wrong and it better get with my way of thinking ASAP. I was very often unhappy with this frame of mind. Then someone told me, the next time you have diarrhea, pray for it to go away!
Now I try to sit back and accept whatever’s happening. This is simultaneously a relief, and a very difficult thing. Like when my cat Elwood died – I knew it wasn’t happening as some great insult to my character, but because he was 17 and just old and that’s what happens to every living thing. I try to reject my sadness over Elwood’s absence as valid, and find myself telling myself I should be happy for him having escaped this mortal coil, yada, yada, yada. The hard thing there is to accept that I cannot yet accept my own emotions, and that’s okay too.
Same with hope, I gave up on that too. Hope is the belief that things are not exactly as they should be right now, but will be in some unspecified future.
Also, I love the daffodil pic.
Oh wow, I love this “Hope is the belief that things are not exactly as they should be right now, but will be in some unspecified future.” I’ve actually used this thought a couple of times since I read it.
And this, “Can we die to each moment so there is a freshness of living that is not possible if we keep carrying around everything that has happened?” I used this yesterday. Someone I know died, who was only 40. He was not a friend, he was a friend of a friend, so I don’t need condolences, but it was an awful thing, nonetheless and I tried to remember that it could be me and to appreciate whatever the day brings.