This morning I was watering the
garden. I do this almost every morning and it is one of my favourite jobs. It’s
a peaceful, gentle job. I talk to the frogs and the plants and when I want to
really find some inspiration I lay down on my belly and look into the secret
shaded world of pumpkins in their patch. They are looking so big and happy!
Today however, this usually peaceful job was marred by a touch of anxiety and
it was generated by yes, you guessed it, my mind. I saw all these things that were
‘messy’, so many little things that need to be finished off and quite a few
very big things that need to be started. Quite suddenly I quite lost my sense
of peace.
Thank goodness I am enough in my
right mind to realise that it was my mind that was at fault here… not the still
unbuilt glasshouse. Quick I thought, what can I do? Thinking, thinking at a
fast pace I realised! Chant mantra and get cracking with it. Get your mind away
from these thoughts Theresa. I began to
chant a lovely Hari Krishna mantra, on repeat. It doesn’t take long for a
mantra to take effect and I began to feel peaceful again. Something was left
though, it was a thought and it has stayed with me all day. I know this thought
and I am so glad I had this experience this morning so that it has been at the
forefront of mind today.
This thought puts things into
perspective and the thought is this… life
is a construction site. At all times, life is a construction site. Of
course I can see endless jobs around me and when I think about my own being I
see there are many things I can do for my inner wellbeing too. Pens out, blue
ink… life is a construction site and there is nothing wrong with that.
You are living in the middle of a
construction site. It will get dusty. It will have materials laying around in
it, waiting to be used. It will at times be noisy. All work will at times come
to a grinding halt thanks to the weather. That’s what happens on a construction
site.
We can get very confused and
rather than seeing life as a construction site we think it is a polished Rogers
and Hammerstein musical. Not the rehearsals, the end product where everyone has
paid for a ticket because they know the show will be pretty much perfect.
This is what makes life hard.
Thinking it is a polished Rogers and Hammerstein musical when in fact, it is a
construction site. Nobody has a Rogers and Hammerstein polished musical
situation around them other than God Realised Yogis/Masters. From an individual’s
perspective it seems that everyone else has a polished Rogers and Hammerstein
life and that their life is the only one that is a construction site.
If you ask the most beautiful, the
wealthiest, the most intelligent (etc) person if they feel their life is
utterly polished they will answer no. The fault in our thinking is that ‘peace’
is just over there, ‘time’ is just over there, ‘happiness’ is just over there…
this is a battle and it cannot be won. It only and always leads in disillusion.
So, what can we do?
Realise that life is a construction
site that you are working on. There is no deadline on this work site. Enjoy the
jobs you are doing, take your time, do your best rather than the most you can
do. Above all else, keep in touch, keep the connection with peace in your
heart. Do not worry about the construction around you, keep a connection with
the peace in your heart instead.
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