“Always We Hope” is a poem by Lao Tau that we were introduced to in our work Mindfulness course last week and it’s a great reminder of how to we need to do more “being” rather than do more “doing” if that makes sense. I’m not very good at just being. I’d rather be doing. Do be do be do – which is it to be? Sing quietly to myself….
Hope is always a good concept – especially when things are really shit.. and right now, things are really shit. So trying to be still and just be would be a great thing to do, but it’s not really working for me at the moment. I have had to get back on life’s rollercoaster, after a period of calm on the roundabout which is obviously not generating any stillness at all. This rollercoaster effect is both in the literal and metaphorical sense, given that I’m still wandering around like a drunken sailor with my Labyrinthitis. I don’t sleep well at the best of times, but the dizziness is obviously not helping and additionally, my heightened sense of stress is adding to the issue, so it’s all a bit of a vicious circle.
This has made me feel a little anti-social which is a worry just days before the Christmas month. I’m trying to get exciting about December and all the Christmas festivities but it’s proving to be harder than usual. I haven’t even got my children for Christmas this year – it’s just going to be me and my mother – a far cry from our huge family Christmas’s and without my father, she will find it extremely hard. How am I supposed to be the life and soul when I feel like this?
Not sure how to overcome this, other than to hope things get better soon and to drink my way through it (which at least gives me a different excuse to be wobbling around). Hopefully it will require nothing more than a stern talking to myself to stop worrying about everything and remember that there is nothing more nourishing for the soul than being in the company of good friends and family and getting out and about in the wilds of London and being reminded that there is life beyond my four walls is surely going to be a better tonic than sitting in my front room watching television.
The Mindfulness course we did encouraged us to deal with everything as a transitory situation – that nothing is permanent and that “this too will pass”…if you remember to breathe.
Here is the poem I mentioned – let me know what you think – I think it might help me feel better:-
ALWAYS WE HOPE – LAO TZU
Always we hope
someone else has the answer,
some other place will be better,
some other time,
it will turn out.
This is it.
No one else has the answer,
no other place will be better,
and it has already turned out.
At the centre of your being,
you have the answer:
you know who you are and
you know what you want.
There is no need to run outside
for better seeing,
nor to peer from a window.
Rather abide at the centre of your being:
for the more you leave it,
the less you learn.
Search your heart and see
the way to do is to be.
Abide at the centre of your being.
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Good one