Practice Makes Us Better

I hope you are all doing well. Last weekend we had friends in town visiting (one of them happens to be an amazing photographer who took this picture) and we went to the Delray Open Tennis Tournament. It was really fun and quite crowded. At one point I found myself waiting in a very long line at the bar. There was another line right next to the one I was in and I was contemplating which line was faster when this man came up behind me. He looked at both lines as well and then said to me, “Want to race?”. I chuckled and said “Sure, why not?”. As both lines moved we would make eye contact and smile, each of us mentally keeping track of whether we were “winning” or “losing” our race to the bartender. When he got to the front of his line (he clearly “won” the race) he gently grabbed my arm and pulled me in front of his line and said “Your turn!”. 

This experience stuck with me because it reminded me of the opportunity we have to find joy no matter what. Even something as boring and mundane as waiting on a beer line can be joyful if we allow it to be. The beginners’ mind is the way to connect to that joy… to look at things with a new perspective; without judgment but with joyful curiosity instead. 

So on the mat we explored that a bit. I asked students to pretend they were in Downward Dog for the first time… to approach it with curiosity rather than judgment or expectation. What we practice we get better at. Whatever it is.

If we can take an everyday task- dishes, laundry, carpool…. we can choose to attach some curiosity to it. We can take it further by creating a game for ourselves or use the task as a meditation https://plumvillage.org/articles/the-zen-of-dishwashing/ or just connect to gratitude for all the abundance we have in our lives. the more we practice the “better” we get at seeing the joy in the everyday.

Many of us carry around heavy burdens of pain and suffering in our families, communities, our world and our planet. However that does not mean there is not an incredible amount of joy we can find along with the suffering. We just have to practice seeing it and there it is!