By Therese Solimeno, Licensed Unity Teacher
There’s a famous Zen Buddhist saying: “Before enlightenment - chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment - chop wood, carry water.” What that basically means is that while the tasks and responsibilities of life don’t change, consistent spiritual practice changes our approach and gives us a different set of tools with which we can meet life’s daily requirements.
Most of us have been studying spiritual principles for many years, and we know how spiritual tools like gratitude, detachment, meditation, etc. change our attitudes and perspectives. But even the most practiced among us run into periods of difficulty when it seems like “the wheels are coming off the bus.”
My year has been like that - for months I was confronted with a variety of threats to “the calm peace of my soul”: close friends having medical challenges, my own medical challenges, client difficulties, a series of unexpected home repairs, car issues, spiritual questioning…. The worst of these “plagues” was the emotional and financial cost of caring for – and then having to euthanize – three beloved senior pets in the span of four months (Not to mention the national and global chaos I encountered every time I opened my phone or read the news). Now, I have been a New Thought student for over 30 years – I’ve read all the books, taken the workshops, taught the workshops, and established a regular routine of meditation and affirmations. Yet nothing I was doing relieved the underlying dis-ease I was feeling; like Obi Wan Kanobi, I was acutely aware of feeling a disturbance in the Force.
Was I unhappy? No, not really. Depressed? Not exactly. The best way to describe what I was experiencing is to equate it to the tornado scenes early in The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy was out of balance being pushed and pulled by the winds, dodging debris while she was trying to get into the shelter; everywhere she turned she was being pelted with something else until finally the window sill knocked her out.
Instead of picket fences and slop buckets, however, I was being mentally and emotionally pelted with befuddlement, worry, fear, irritation, confusion, old triggers, and way too much sugar. And as we all know, it’s hard to practice love, forgiveness, kindness, mindfulness and detachment when you’re fighting off an army of flying monkeys in your head. Even after 30 years of spiritual practice, I was searching for calm in the eye of the storm.
A shift in perspective came from the teachings of Saint Jimmy of Buffett, by way of a song he wrote that was inspired by Hurricane Katrina. Click on the link to hear the song on YouTube:
Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On by Jimmy Buffet
Lyrics:
I bought a cheap watch from the crazy man
Floating down Canal
It doesn’t use numbers or moving hands
It always just says "now."
Now you may be thinking that I was had
But this watch is never wrong
And if I had trouble the warranty said:
Breathe in, breathe out, move on
(Chorus)
And it rained
It was nothing really new
And it blew
Seen all that before
And it poured
The earth began to strain
Pontchartrain leaking through the door, tides at war
If a hurricane doesn’t leave you dead
It will make you strong
Don’t try to explain it just nod your head
Breathe in, breathe out, move on
And it rained
It was nothing really new
And it blew
Seen all that before
And it poured
The earth began to strain
Pontchartrain buried the 9th ward to the 2nd floor
According to my watch, the time is now
The past is dead and gone
Don't try to shake it, just nod your head
Breathe in, breathe out, move on
Don’t try to explain it, just bow your head
Breathe in, Breathe Out, Move on....
source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/j/jimmybuffettlyrics/breatheinbreatheoutmoveonlyrics.html
Of course, there’s no way I can imagine the shock and devastation that the residents of New Orleans experienced during that disaster. But I can relate to the themes of resilience, acceptance, and moving forward. And something in the simplicity of the phrase “breathe in, breathe out, move on” struck me as the perfect mantra to repeat any time I was met with a situation that was beyond my control.
This is not to say that we can’t challenge any situation or obstacle that we encounter – I have a degree in pushing boundaries, finding loopholes, or going over, under, around or through any wall that I face (my father taught me that a closed door is not a locked door). But we have all experienced those times when it’s clear that we have exhausted all our apparent options, and that’s when we can utilize the power of the pause. Breath in, breath out…pause and regroup.
Today we are celebrating the 26th anniversary of the founding of this spiritual center (November 14, 1999). Our origin story exemplifies this process perfectly: Many in the congregation of the old church were unhappy with the leadership of the minister; they tried to work within the system to change it, and – after a particularly contentious congregational meeting – when it became clear that the community imagined by many in the congregation was not going to happen under that minister, a small group of members took a figurative breath and decided to move on. The result was a “participatory ministry,” one where the speakers and musicians change each week and include various members of the congregation (not just one senior minister). Skeptics said it wouldn’t last two months, yet here we are 26 years later…because we took a pause, visualized what we wanted, and moved forward together to create it.
Remember: when you think you have no other recourse, before you speak, before you act, before you fall into old patterns, take a breath and live in the pause for a moment...with this change of perspective from a group called Positive Mindset:
Not all storms come to destroy your life; some come to clear your path.
Therese Solimeno, Licensed Unity Teacher