Well, not really. Clearly there is no limit to how we will cause suffering to ourselves and each other. May I suggest that one thing to do is to do our ordinary tasks but minus the usual mental narrative. Nice, if you can manage it. It gives plenty of room for feeling sadness as well as joy.
With that in mind, we put up a Christmas tree and we all took delight in the ornaments, the little twinkly lights and the most excellent smell (even if it is the smell of a tree in the process of dying).
Lucy actually called me a buzzkill the other day. What's up with that? And how did she even know that word?
Olive, who is quite good at at doing things without mental narrative, found delight in a pile of recently scoured Shetland. She has mighty good taste, that cat. The Shetland is part of my experimentations for The Project in Which I Bitch Slap Richard Serra (But, You Know, With Wool) (working title).
A veritable beehive of activity.
Please, I encourage you to embrace the darkness as well as the light of the season! It all will pass swiftly by.
Excellent working title, and I hope final as well!
ReplyDeleteI've had a psalm verse stuck in my head for the past few days (30.5 if you must know) the last couple lines of which are "Weeping may linger for the night,
but joy comes with the morning." Except morning is spelled mourning in my mental narrative. I've been all what's up with that? until reading your post. Thank you! xoxo
I think your mourning translation is right on.
ReplyDeleteAnd I loved the poem you posted. So perfect.
And, and thanks for not getting angry about my working title. That has to be one of the nastiest phrases in the English language...and yet I used it.
"minus the usual mental narrative" - that sounds exactly like what I resolved to do yesterday, but you put so much more elegantly. Thanks for the reminder.
ReplyDeletethat's what it is with christmas . . sadness and joy and darkness and light and . . trying to have a quiet mind. you put it very well. every christmas i struggle with killing a beautiful tree and bringing it into my home to die . . ! (sigh). i try to comfort myself a little by mulching it, but i really don't like leaving it on the sidewalk for the trucks. i prefer taking it to the mulching place. however, we leave the tree up for three kings . . and often the mulching places are closed by then . . oh it goes on and on . . happy holidays, robyn.
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