An Exciting Idea

When I was a sophomore at Merrimack College we had to take religion classes.  I hadn't grown up with one particular religion, since my mother was Protestant and my father Catholic, neither practicing but both with a great deal of faith and spirituality.  I never wanted to pigeonhole my beliefs, but I'd always been interested in all aspects of the Divine. I wanted to use the opportunity of going to a Catholic school to find out what I did in fact believe in.  I took one class on Christianity and one on Eastern Religions.  Both taught me a great deal, although I couldn't tell you an account of any one particular parable. 

I do remember, when learning about Buddhism, that the concepts the faith is based on were mind-blowing and comforting all at the same time.  I remember reading that we should try to be like a blade of grass, able to bend in the wind, and not like a rigid tree which would break under pressure. I identified with that, believing that the goal was not to be accomodating to others, but actually to not let your soul become burdened and broken.

Another lesson had to do with becoming like a river. Never stagnant.  You are literally a different person with every second of your day.  I have done something new this second compared with the last. Our knowledge is an accumulation of all the moments in our lives, but that does not mean we are the person we were yesterday. We are everything we were and everything we might be, from second to second.  I could decide, right this moment, to change my outlook on life, to change what I say to people, to change how I react, to disregard what happened a year ago. Every moment is mine. Every moment is yours.

This same lesson had to do with letting go.  Nothing is forever, no matter how much we'd like it to be. The person you think you know best in the world is a different person today than he or she was yesterday.  We must allow that to occur, or you are essentially halting the flowing river that the person has potential to be.  I try to remind myself of this day to day. Every time you wake up next to your husband or wife, you are meeting them for the first time. Every time you have lunch with your best friend, they are not quite the same as you left them last. This could seem scary, but also, extremely exciting. What can you discover today about the people you love most?