doing the superiority dance opens way for a knock upside the head

Yes, yesterday I was feeling so superior that I found my special friend Marcus Aurelius again.  Philosopher extraordinaire!  I went to bed all “zen and peace”, only to be wakened by our dog Cally whose stomach was pitching and heaving, with the tell tale “I -am- about-to-puke” burping.  I leapt out of bed, ran to the hall, stepped in his puke, then he blew his contents….ahhh yes, … where did my zen go?  Tracking sticky bile, I led him to the front door, mainly so that  he could be outside while I cleaned up the mess.   On my hands and knees, paper towels for initial clean, rags,bucket and soapy water for the big clean.  Nothing like cleaning bile and bits of dead forest stuff from the hardwood at 3:00 in the morning.

I did “kind of” chuckle to myself as I realized that if I had actually possessed the zen-like calm that Aurelius spoke of, and we all try to practice, then the barfing incident would not have bothered me so much.  So if I want to be all zen and peace, then it takes practice right?  And practice only comes in the form of life and its little curve-balls, challenges and jokes.  Well last night, I was the butt-end of that joke the universe threw out…until the next time;)

its all the same barf or toilets

Marcus Aurelius is a philosopher.   I enjoy reading his book of Meditations.  It is simply a pause within the internal chatter.  Aurelius was the  Emperer of Rome (AD 161-180) and a wise man.

I have always tried not to over-think, but to think deeply.  I found that this past week, I was spending a little too much time thinking about the things that I really didn’t want to do… like cleaning the bathrooms and bringing in wood.  Usually, I enjoy the most basic aspects of keeping a house in order, but I seemed to have been pre-occupied with thinking all about the things that I didn’t want to do!  It is one of those dumb things that take up mental space.

Aurelius said this about cleaning toilets and dog barf on the carpet…o’k he wasn’t specific…I am free wheeling…
“If you do the job in a principled way, with diligence, energy and patience, if you keep yourself free of distractions, and keep the spirit inside you undamaged, as if you might have to give it back at any moment–If you can embrace this without fear or expectation—can find fulfillment in what you’re doing now, as Nature intended, and in superhuman truthfulness(every word, every utterance)—then your life will be happy.  No one can prevent that.” It’s true.

I wrote this thought in my journal, after a particularly cold, windy and rainy walk with the dog:
To walk in the sun, as if the shade
To walk in the shade, as if the sun.