I’m off in silent retreat!
Amazing technology…I can write this before I enter the retreat and you get it now.
And, how do I really know what will happen? There could be a tech glitch and what I think will happen in a few days actually won’t. There could be a surprise.
Sometimes planes don’t take off, things don’t go as we think.
No kidding, right?!?
Time…and all the ideas we have about it…is soooo crazy and fascinating.
And sometimes brutally stressful, without the ability to question what runs through your mind about “time”.
I have to plan now, I have to get ready, I have to get it done, I have to make good use of it, I’m not getting it finished, I absolutely do not have enough, I need more of it, life is too short.
These can be hard thoughts to have.
I have a wonderful friend who told me recently he can’t wait until he’s 62 so he can move himself into a retirement community, whatever place he picks where he’ll be for the rest of his life, and never have to worry about it from that point forward.
He has 11 years to wait until he’s 62!
But that was so funny (and fun) to me…since many of us don’t want to think about what’s coming in the future when it relates to retiring, declining, decaying, aging, dying.
Some of us might have the response to a friend making this kind of announcement that he’s planning too far ahead, he’s got plenty of time, and why is he so interested in moving only once-and-for-all anyway?
Over-planning, under-planning.
Lots of time, too little time.
Who would you be without the belief that there’s too much time, or too little time, when it comes to something in your life you care about deeply?
What if the story was instead that there is just the right amount of time?
Just the right amount of time with that person you once knew, just the right amount of time on that vacation, just the right amount of time struggling with your career, or being in that job, just the right amount of time waiting, just the right amount of time spent completing that project, or getting from here to there, just the right amount of time being alive on the planet?
“Confusion is when you argue with what is. When you’re perfectly clear, what is is what you want. So when you want something that’s different from what is, you can know that you’re very confused.” ~ Byron Katie
Turning thoughts about time around:
Woohoo! Planning happens, planning doesn’t happen, I get to consider planning since it’s entered my world through my friend, I can get ready, I don’t have to get ready, I don’t have to get it done, I don’t have to make good use of it, I’m not getting it finished, I’ll never get it finished, I absolutely do not have more than I have, and I don’t need more of it, life is just right however long or short it is, I write when I do, I send it out later.
“In reality, we are only ever given a moment of pain, and never more, although thought tries to project the pain into time, creating the story of ‘my past and future pain’, moving into the epic movie of ‘my lifelong struggle with pain.’ But life itself is only ever a moment, and we are always spared from time itself. Can we meet the raw life energy as it arises right now?” ~ Jeff Foster
Simply amazing, to be here spared from time.
Leaning into the life energy of this moment now.
Whether there’s a “deadline” or not, no matter what age you are, no wrong time, everything happening on time.
Much love, Grace