What We Choose to Emphasize

I hope you all had a great weekend. My weekend was filled with laughter and joy as I had three very close friends come for a visit. The weather was cool and overcast during their visit (and I felt responsible somehow that I could not provide sunny eighty-degree days). We all acknowledged the weather was less than perfect and then proceeded to have an absolutely wonderful time. This experience was a very small example of the theme I shared with my classes last week.  

One of the biggest challenges we can face on our mindfulness journey is trying to reconcile that we can (and should) connect to joy despite the suffering in our personal world or the collective world. This is difficult when things are not going the way we planned or when we feel the suffering of loved ones, people around the world, or our planet. 

The quote below speaks to this idea in a very powerful way. It was written by Howard Zinn who was a historian, professor, author, and activist. He also happened to be the father-in-law of John Kabat-Zinn who brought secular mindfulness to this country through creating the MBSR program. 

An optimist isn’t necessarily a blithe, slightly sappy whistler in the dark of our time. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, and kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something.

 If we remember those times and places–and there are so many–where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory. 

The last line of this quote speaks to me the most. “The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

This is the power each of us has. The future becomes the present each moment so living now as our most authentic and joyful self helps defy the suffering in the world and mobilizes us to create both small and large positive change. Our practice teaches each of us how we individually can contribute to this positive change. I would like to think one way I do that is by sharing these messages with you. I am so grateful to all who read them