A Tender, Shaky Kind of Place

Today I am grateful for the women in our local breast cancer support group and my comfort level with them. I am also grateful that Darcy is making my breakfast this morning.

This is a link to a post about Pema Chodron from April of 2015. In it, I write about old habits and fears and working to replace them, ideas in one of Chodron's books. It comes down to openminded kindness really. Toward others, ourselves, the environment that surrounds us. This is a reminder that I need daily. Staying mindfully present with an open heart are the keys to experiencing life fully.

She furthers these suggestions in this quote:

"Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live."

Gray areas for black and white thinkers, for all-or-nothing sorts of brains like mine. I am not all right or all wrong. I spend most of my time smack dab between perfectly flawed and imperfectly human. It is just where I am supposed to be. And yet, I will struggle with it. I will linger in the "all wrong" and beat myself up. Or I may get stuck in the oversized ego of "all right" in a certain situation.

Both of those close my mind and my heart. They also take me out of the present moment.

So I appreciate Pema Chodron's suggestion to live in "a more tender, shaky kind of place."  Go boldly into my next breath and my next task, see where it takes me. Go boldly into a pause and toward faith in the Great Spirit.  Tender and shaky tell me that life is precious and fragile and should be treated as such.

Tender and shaky are kind and gentle. We can all use more of that, individually and collectively.


Comments

  1. Wonderful insightful post Lisa. Have already it twice to let it soak in.

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