Remind yourself that you don't have to do anything. You don't have to be better than anyone else. You don't have to win. You don't have to be number one or number twenty-seven or any other number.
Give yourself permission to just be. Stop interfering with your unique natural being. Lighten the burden you carry to be productive, wealthy, and successful in the eyes of others and replace it with an inner assertion that allows you to access the Tao.
Affirm: I am centered in the Tao. I trust that I am able to straighten myself out, and so is the world. I retreat into silence knowing all is well.
So I will try to allow myself to just be. Despite the headache and side-effects of antibiotics that make me want to classify a new category of illness. All will be well again, soon enough.
Karen
BRILLIANT i love this post! "You don't have to do anything." It's exactly what we all need to hear - U of M is a fucking rat race. The world doesn't need more achievers, it needs reduced activity, reduced consumption. Reduced noise.
ReplyDeleteDoing nothing is holy so keep doing it.
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Karen -- I needed this. Dealing with my own little bug right now, and I find myself constantly reminded of Thich Naht Hanh's "A non-toothache is very pleasant" passage in Peace is Every Step. All I have been able to for the past few days is lie in bed with a nasty fever. Funnily enough, all I can think of are ways in which I didn't fully appreciate my health when I had it.
ReplyDeleteYou're right -- all will be well again, soon enough.