Brief Up-Date

I haven't been much in the mood to blog lately.  Life has been keeping me busy which is a very good thing.  I am grateful I have been able to keep up with it, despite this pesky brain fog. 

I also just finished reading Siddhartha by Herman Hesse and am now reading a book called Living Buddha, Living Christ.  These two books have motivated me to get back into a regular pattern of meditating and being very present in the moment.  I think this has lifted the brain fog noticeably.  Perhaps part of the foggy feeling I have been experiencing has been related to my being distracted by never feeling normal.  That being said, being present and calm has not lent itself to the right mindset for blogging.

I have also been contemplating where I ever got the idea that life is supposed to be easy.  Or rather, why I (we) are surprised when things don't go along as planned or expected.  If you look around, really look, it is easy to see that many, many people suffer from a million kinds of ailments, circumstances, or series of unfortunate events.  I imagine in all the generations leading up to the last one or two, and certainly still in many parts of the world, that no one expected life to always be pleasant and easy and so were maybe more resiliant to the inevitable setbacks or challenges that presented themselves.  To me, anyway, I used to have the preconceived notion that life should be pretty easy most of the time.  I am learning, though, that really I should be grateful for the times it actually is easy and to not be so surprised that most of the time it is not.

As the Buddha said, "Suffering (aka discontentment) is the result of wanting things to be different than they are."  Or, paraphrasing Jesus, good things come to bad people just as often as bad things come to good people.  But, He goes on to say, do not worry about where your next meal will come from, for God ensures that the plants and animals do not go hungry and certainly He will provide for you.

So I am living in the moment and gently bringing my mind back to it when it wanders ahead.  And peace is here, now.