"What makes life really worth living?" is a question I
ponder often. Each person probably answers this question differently.
Influenced by the music of the Beatles, at one time I cherished the myth, "All you need is love."
I envy the simplistic naïveté of that song. Despite knowing that at least a few people love me, I have
never been free of periodic feelings of angst. "Is love enough?" I ponder. However, I tend to
push such speculations out of my mind because in the deepest sense of
the word, I probably have merely a faint inkling of what real love is.
"All you need is money" is another credo echoing through the corridors of my mind from time to time. Certainly this
is a practical way of approaching things. When remembering those periods when I had
no food and my stomach was nawing, materialism seems eminently sensible. However, during
most of my life I have had a modicum of financial success. Although money buys a lot,
lasting happiness is not one of those items.
There are many other "All you need" disourses rampling inside this mind.
I might as well be honest and say I have no idea what I actually need. Is anything more than fleeting happiness for humans possible?
The architecture of my mind – and most that I have encountered – have so many coding bugs that our mental machinations
manufacture misery more often than joy.
Retuning to that question of what makes life worth living, these four things seem salient –
(1) Celebrate parts of you that are young and playful
Parts of us are dead already, but there are also parts that are vibrant and alive.
Focus on those parts of those parts of you that are still living. Take a body scan
and notice what is "living" and what feels partly dead. Personsaly, I notice my toes have
a different energy. Each morning before getting out of bed I wiggle them a few minutes. It helps me connect
to a kernel of my being that's uncorrupted by pessisism, unmarred by pain, and gleefully immune to lethargy.
Have noticed how babies take delight in wiggling their toes? It's part of
their wisdom of unknowing: they're not only burning a few calories; they're also
stimulating nerve centers and important energy channels.
Why can't more adults do that? There's a natural exuberance in the
process. If I spend a few minutes every day
simply wiggling the toes without thinking of anything else,
the day goes better. An inner smile appears. Just as computers need to boot up properly
to function well, humans need to follow certain protocols when waking up to optimize
their awareness.
When I start the day off by wiggling my toes with foolish delight, things turn out
a bit more magically than when I devote the entire day to non-sense efficiency.
Toe wiggling is a celebration of play and important daily ritual. It might seem foolish,
but things which are absurd in terms of ordinary sense are often precious from a different
sense.
(2) Send love to plants
It might seem incongruous, but oneimportant daily ritual I treasure is
walking by a garden and sending love to some plants. On
the way to work, I pass by a field of mint. Two years ago somebody
put weed killer there and the whole patch nearly died. However,
mint is a resilient herb and I'm encouraging the remaining plants
to grow back. Each day I send a lot of love to that mint patch. And in ways
I can't explain, I feel those plants encourage me too. The dark, aromatic green
leaves and faint lavender flowers of mint have qualities that nurture my spirit.
One part of me thinks it's foolish to love a verdant perennial that
dies each winter . . . another part thinks its brilliant because many plants
know the alchemy of resurrection and they come back each spring. There's something
brave about the way the mint flourishes. No single mint plant lasts long,
yet a colony can thrive many generations even under adverse circumstances.
When I close my eyes before sleeping, sometimes I feel aromatic mint leaves surrounding me
(3) Send love to my "Inner Circle"
T.S. Eliot said that most people have an "inner circle" of friends they
consider important. The people in your "inner circle" are
alive in you - you have conversations with them regularly. They are the
those who have made you who you are. Your inner circle consists of those who inhabit
your conciousness. This might consist of people you are physically close to, or
perhaps even far away from. Christ is (or should be) alive in the hearts of all Christians.
And Buddha is (or should be) alive in the hearts of those who take his teachings seriously.
Who's in your inner circle? That's a question worth reflecting on. The way you
answer that query influences the geometry of your heart and shape of your live.
Every day and send love to my inner circle and wish them well. There's something healing about being sending love energy to others. A wise person
once told me "there are no others – just different fragments of the same self."
Although this doesn't make sense intellectually, by giving love to others, my
heart gains energy as well.
(4) Bury Your Ghosts & Offer A Peace Prayer
We all have ghosts: memories of friends who have been lost or family members who have become separated.
Instead of lamenting the past or dwelling on things that no longer exist, I am learning to set my ghosts free.
The energies of every person we know exists somewhere in our body. Do a body scan, then set them free.
I can locate parts with anger, joy, lust, clarity, and sloth at various points in my consciousness.
Often, this is a case in what "ghosts of the past" have not yet parted. The parts that exist are just
short-term configurations . . . rather than resist each impulse,
it seems wiser to breathe softly and let it pass. When I'm still
and allow the parts to be without trying to "change" anything,
a modicum of peace arises. I acknowledge a lot of mayhem exists
within me. Fortunately, there is seldom a need to act on any of the
impulses . . . they can be for a brief moment, then vanish.
These four daily rituals might seem insignificant, but they make my life more worth life. Different people no doubt have different daily rituals to enrich their lives. However, I encourage you to try these things out. Sometimes small things can make a big differene.