FILLING IN THE DAY

“I’m late! I’m late. For a very important date! No time to say hello! Good-bye! I’m late! I’m late! I’m late!”

~ The Mad Hatter, from Alice in Wonderland

I wake clear and rested, light flooding my room. The day seems endless and free. But making coffee, I notice three bills I haven’t paid, and after showering, I notice I need a haircut, and since I’ll be out that way, I think I might as well pick up my shirts. But I so want to spend time in the sun. So I think, well, after these errands, I’ll go to the park, and then I deliberate which park will be just right and decide on one forty minutes away. Finally, wanting to make sure there is some fun in all of this, I call a friend and plan to meet her at a movie at six.

Now I have to hurry along to make sure I can get everywhere on time. But, thankfully, while gassing up, I hear a small bird and lift my head just as a cloud opens and the lights floods my mind, and I drop all my plans like change on the ground.

I laugh at myself. I can so easily become a slave to a schedule I create. Not one of these things is necessary today. I drop everything and follow the bird.

~ Bring to mind all you have to do today. Feel it crowd you.

~ Center yourself and inhale each task slowly and exhale each urgency.

~ Rise and enter this day as if it your first and your last.

~ Now drop all that is not necessary.

The Book of Awakening

~ Mark Nepo