A Sunday evening.
Laura Gibson - Lion/Lamb
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Today deserves a mention - a quick note - for being a surprisingly good day. Nothing particular or out of the ordinary happened today. I woke up to a lovely message from my mother which really started the day off well. It followed on with breakfast while watching the tennis with Matt and a quick call to the family. A much needed haircut and lunch with Sarita was next. A quick siesta was in order before a concert with Neus and then drinks with some friends of hers.
All in all a pretty standard Saturday. The only difference is that I chose to see everything in a new ‘Tolle inspired’ light. It sounds cheesy I know but a slight change in attitude really makes a world of difference. I can’t remember the last time I was this happy and in a good mood over, literally, no particular reason except for the fact that I chose a new way of thinking.
If it doesn’t last for long then at least I had one day of peace. I just hope there are more days like this to come.
AC
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Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.
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“The quicker you are in attaching verbal or mental labels to things, people, or situations, the more shallow and lifeless your reality becomes, and the more deadened you become to reality, the miracle of life that continuously unfolds within and around you. In this way, cleverness may be gained, but wisdom is lost, and so are joy, love creativity and aliveness.”
I’m reading Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth and this excerpt from the book reminded me of this clip from the film Waking Life.
Tolle suggests that a longing to find value through the labeling of a personality is misguided. I feel a pressure to name and label the things in my life that, I thought, would give me value. Names and labels like runner, traveler and professional were/are mechanisms I use to identify to the personality I construct for myself. In this sense, these words don’t actually have the power to give me the value I long for. I assign the meaning to these arbitrary words based on what I hope they will bring to my constructed personality, much like this scene from Waking Life. However, the meaning of these words, which were meant to give a sense of value, actually did the opposite. Tolle suggests that these words don’t actually have the meaning or value that I intend them to have. Instead I become a prisoner in my attempt to continuously pursue them when, in fact, they only restrict me to what others and myself have attributed the most basic level of meaning to them. In other words, I will only be a runner, traveler or professional because these words are the building blocks I have used to construct my personality when I am so much more.
