Words of a wise Tibetan

My mind is getting full and I am starting to find I am drifting slowly day by day  to Australia. I am mapping out the meals I want to eat, the things I want to do, the people I want to see – how that will flow, the conversations, the catching up. It is endless. I find it hard to comprehend really. It is funny how we do that though, project ourselves to the future and if you are like me, begin to imagine how it will feel to be in a place, what it will be like to see people, what are all the things that can happen.  I guess it is like scenario planning, imagining all of the possible outcomes and having a strategy or an approach for each one.  Although I don’t quite go to that extreme, I am not scenario planning my home coming, but I am starting to picture what it will feel like to see my sister at Sydney airport. 

I am trying valiantly to stay here and in the moment as from previous experience I am acutely aware that future or past are not really useful places to hang out. Occasionally to reflect on something you have learned then the past can be helpful or if you are specifically planning around future then taking a trip a few years ahead and visualising what it is you want is incredibly powerful. But on a whole, the best ways to spend your precious moments of time are here and now. So I am trying but as each day passes it is becoming increasingly more and more difficult to contain. But practice makes perfect so I will continue.  I have had some tendencies to spend a lot of my time in the past, going over things, analysing them and critiquing what I could have done differently, better, said or not said etc etc. I reflect a lot, I journal out my days, I spend time going over things so I can see how things did or did not go wrong and then often spend a great deal of time cutting myself up over it. Not a very productive use of time, nor healthy.

When I was in Mcleod,  I was having a disagreement with a Tibetan friend when we decided to drop the subject  as clearly we were not getting anywhere that he said “no problems, past is past”.  I think I smiled, shrugged and thought ok, but walked off stewing over the issue for the next hour.  I went to approach the subject with him, he smiled in return and said simply “past is past, it is forgotten” that I realised he honestly meant it. He had forgotten what was a pretty heavy conversation. Maybe he did not forget, but he was able to put it down and move on. He was amused that I had carried it around for more than an hour brewing – clearly his use of the hour was more productive than mine.

I am drawing on the inspiration of my Tibetan friends this week as I am always learning from them with their simple and uncomplicated way of seeing life.  The acceptance for how things are, even in changing situations, the ability to embrace each and every moment as it is. Not jumping ahead to tomorrow, next week, next month or next year, nor wallowing in the history of our lives. It is here and now the magic happens, so that is my focus for today.