Chop wood, Carry water

Before enlightenment chop wood and carry water.
After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.  

According to a Buddhist saying often attributed to Wu Li, the little rituals that serve to sustain us physically also nourish our spirit. It’s all about how you choose to enact these details, of course. You can choose to do them mindfully, as a means to be present, or you can back peddle your way through them rueing the fact you were not born to nobility. I have tried both methods. I find the former is more satisfying but I frequently forget this, relishing the fire of the second choice. The first nourishes but the second savages. It is briefly satisfying in the way that destroying something can be briefly gratifying: ripping up the fourteenth draft of a story that continues to have no resolution, writing another poem about killing off an abusive ex-boyfriend, losing patience with a partner and saying the first thing that comes to mind.

I named this site Turning into the Slide to remember not to resist necessary changes. Not only is resistance futile, it creates more suffering. Again, I write this with an extensive knowledge of spectacular spin outs and mind numbing crashes. Just a few moments have made me wiser, when I have chosen, whether through grace or fatigue, to do what seems contrary to self preservation at the moment: to observe the approach and presence of turbulence and let it pass by.

I took Latin in college and one of my favorite sayings became “Laborare est Orare,” to work is to pray. The discipline that it took for me to do well with the study of language was unlike many of my other school experiences. I had to work at it in a way that I never had to before. I learned to honor it for this reason. The recitation of conjugations and phrases was meditative, a newly discovered intimacy with the moment, a kind of prayer.

The daily practice of learning Latin gave me a glimpse into how the routine and ordinary can become a means of being more fully present, my means of chopping wood, carrying water.

I have never made resolutions for the new year…this year I would like to pay attention to doing the things that I feel nourish my life: to do more laughing, reading, writing, playing, seeing friends and family, walking, acting up for my beliefs, listening….to try to be more patient, be more present in the little rituals that sustain.