It has been really foggy where I live for days. Yesterday, the sun popped through in part of town and it was astonishing to me how bright the world seemed. I felt like I could breathe again and I was uplifted. My mood was bright for the first time in days. Again today, though the fog is covering our little community like a cap. I hear that just 25 miles in any direction there is light. Getting up and getting started with this darkness hanging around has been hard.
So I have been working during my morning meditation to conjure up the intense light that I collected when I was in Hawaii. Yesterday, standing in the thin rays of light cutting through the fog, I reveled in the light that filled my head behind my eyes. I realized how short our visceral memory actually lasts and was unbelievably grateful for the recharge. I need light.
The thought that came to me as I was standing, eyes closed, gazing at the sun, was how lucky I am to have this life. This is a thought that I work to circle around every day- this idea that no matter what is in front of me… how lucky I am that I get to do – whatever. Reminding myself that all of it is a treat, a gift helps get me out of bed with an attitude that lifts the fog moment by moment.
I notice that training myself in this recognition of how lucky I am that I get to do what is before me changes everything. It is so brief the time we have to do whatever we fill our days with, and in the end, whatever we are doing is just what we fill our days with. Before long, all the things that we think matter so much, amount only to the joy or frustration we experienced day in and day out.
You can teach yourself to remember how lucky you are to do your work, whatever it is each day. Begin by imagining this is the last day you will ever have the chance to do everything you do.
Even washing the dishes, feeling warm water running over your hands becomes a spiritual lift. Loving people, as if for the last time can bring tears to your eyes. Imagining the end brings clarity to the moment like nothing else.
Next, transform that rich immediacy into a gratitude that you get to have this day, you get to help or interact with all the people that make your life what it is. One more lucky day, you get to do it all.
