The other day I was waiting in line at the post office. It was a hot day, and the room was stuffy and cramped, full of people.
Ahead of me is an older gentleman and ahead of him a cute blonde girl. He’s spouting off to her about how horrible kids today are. The Me Generation. How they all need to be in the military for at least two years. Ranting, raving, the whole 9. The girl looks tired and weary. Her eyes gaze blankly back at him and she nods politely from time to time. With each nod, he gets more excited, his voice becoming louder, his face turning redder.
“They have no discipline! No respect! They just take, take, take! And where are the parents? They want everyone else to raise their disrespectful kids! I’ll tell ya what’s wrong with all of these people…”
His voice fades from my awareness as I think about my daughter, who is 15 years old. Her sweet face, her kind disposition. She is an amazing human, not at all greedy or needy like the pictures this man is painting. She’s a great kid, and anyone who has ever met her could tell you that. Then my mind moves to her friends, an incredible circle of teenagers that are all involved in the theater at their high school. I can clearly see their faces, hear their voices. I know these kids. They call me “Mom” and come running to me with hugs whenever they see me. They send me goofy Snapchats. They tell me their stories, both the happy ones and the hard ones. They post intelligent, thoughtful things on Facebook. They are good kids, and anyone who has ever met them could tell you that.
“…and another thing..” Mr. Happy’s voice crashes back into my world.
“Excuse me, “ I ask, “where do you live?”
“Huh?” he blinks, thrown off by the interruption of his tirade.
“Where do you live?” I repeat, smiling kindly.
He says Henderson. I reply “me too, and that’s funny. It’s like you’re describing another planet to me. The kids I know are awesome! They are creative, intelligent, kind, and very good huggers.
The man looks at me, confused, and visibly taken aback.
His face contorts and he says “don’t you see the world??? The shootings, the problems, the…” blah blah blah. He starts up again, going on with his sad lists. I can’t hear any more. Not one more word. Something inside me refuses to even look in the direction that he is pointing. Instead, I glance around me and evaluate our current circumstances. I look hard and make sure to take it all in, in hopes that if I can describe it to him clearly, maybe he could see it too.
“I see the sun is shining and the weather is gorgeous. I see you’re standing between 2 cute blondes, so I’m sad that you’re choosing to live in these complaints and grievances, which we can’t even see here, instead of living in the moment we have RIGHT NOW.” To be here now. The here and now.
As the words tumble out of my mouth, I marvel at myself, wondering from where the heck this was coming. Deep down, I know. It was coming from my heart, from the deep connection with my soul that I have been working so hard to obtain. It was coming from a peaceful and easy focus that meditation, journaling and studying has brought me. I have gotten clear on who I am and what I want to experience, and my heart won’t take “no” for an answer.
Mr. Happy chortles and the girl raises her eyebrows, a gleam creeping into her eyes. I see she’s wearing a triathlon finisher t-shirt. I inquire about her race and her whole face lights up, the weary look is gone and she’s positively radiant. She honestly looks 10 years younger. I ask her if she’s ever tried obstacle course races, because they are challenging like triathlons, yet full of obstacles, which makes them super fun. She gets excited cuz she’s never tried one, and now we are talking about all of the different kinds and where to find them, and suddenly the dark cloud has lifted from the post office.
It’s interesting to play and see what our energies can do. Anyone can walk into a place, a situation, and can either raise the energy up or bring it down. Anyone can do this at any time! It all depends on where the focus is resting. And most times, if the focus is brought to the present moment, to everything that is going on RIGHT NOW, life will be happy, peaceful and good. If the focus gets lured into the past or kicked into the future, depression, anxiety and fear become available to all.
It has taken some time for all of this to sink into my head. It’s taken some time to become aware of my habitual reactions so that I can decide if they are things I want to keep or discard. Little by little, I’m learning, and it’s fun. And fun is good.
But the most exciting part is that I now see how each one of us can actively create our reality. We can create the world around us. I can, you can, we all can! Just remember these three words we’ve heard but maybe not always heeded – BE HERE NOW – and you will be on your way to the right track.
What kind of world do you want to live in?
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