Before my kids exit the car for camp every morning, I try to impart some wisdom. I understand that it's mostly a futile thing but I hope that once in a while, and maybe for a long while, some of what I say will stick.
"Thoughts are like flowers and weeds." I said yesterday, "The good, helpful thoughts are the flowers; the negative thoughts are the weeds. Your mind is like a garden, so be careful which plants you water, because what you water the most is what will grow. Would you prefer a mind full of beautiful flowers, or a mind full of weeds?" *crickets.....followed by mama's gone crazy shared look*
"Sometimes not getting what you want is a good thing because it can lead you to much better things you never knew were there." This one made my son eyeroll because he'd not been allowed to buy something on his electronic device half an hour earlier.
I've learned more about myself in the last two years than in all my years. Currently, I'm sitting with uncertainty, fear, worry, and frustration over things that I cannot control. In years gone by, I'd have been a bound slave to the dire link between thought and emotion. I know better now to locate the peaceful light inside, even if it feels like I'm parting a hedgerow that only serves to become thicker and snappier with each handful apart. I can see the light, I can feel the light, I can tap into it, and for a fleeting moment, peace settles in, right there in the middle of the writhing forest. Soon enough, and inevitably, the thoughts swoop in like crows with their chatter and tightness and the white birdlight flies away. The process ebbs and flows as I work throughout the days to breathe, center, tap in....breathe, center, tap in...
My lesson for the next few days will probably be about letting go of trying to control things. Keeping at least some part of me in touch with the light on the other side of the hedgerow while the rest of me is fretting about something that has an either/or outcome. And pulling from the experience, some words of wisdom for my kids who, one day, will appreciate the little seeds I've been planting. I hope.
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