Comfort Living
“Try to be like the turtle — at ease in your own shell.” Bill Copeland, scientist, mathematician, super geek, poet
Did you ever wake up one morning and feel as if everything is right in place, that you’re just in a relaxed and pleased moment? That’s contentment.
Have you ever walked in the woods and a rabbit crosses your path and suddenly you feel at peace and at one with everything? That’s contentment.
But it’s more than just a passive state of mind, reminds yoga experts. Contentment, they say, is a virtue that can be developed. It can help us calm our minds from the effects of all of life’s emotions.
Waking up with my dog curled over my knee brings me contentment.
My son David is in a state of contentment every time he looks at his lovely two daughters and beloved wife whom he calls his soul mate.
My friend Amy has found contentment in an old second hand bicycle she discovered in a local Goodwill thrift shop. She hasn’t ridden in decades but now whenever she feels stressed, she hops on her red flying machine and makes a two block journey . . . in perfect contentment. Even her amusement at her own wobbly knees pleases her. When two construction workers watched her wobble her way down the block yesterday, she called out over her shoulder, “Don’t laugh; I’ll faaaaaaaall.” and roared with laughter later at her own vision of her bobbly ride and her wobbly knees.
Ellie finds her contentment in her church and its many social events.
Jody has three grandchildren for whom she knits sweaters, caps, mittens, smiling through each stitch.
To each our own path to contentment. It’s there, just waiting for us. Being satisfied with what we have doesn’t mean we are “settling”: we can still move on, grow, have ambitions. Being pleased with our present state doesn’t nail us to it; instead, contentment gives us the gift of comfort. Contentment is comfort food for our souls.
Meditation for the Day
“When you can think of yesterday without regret and tomorrow without fear, you are near
contentment.”
Action for the Day
Today, I’ll permit myself to be comfortable in my own skin, my own life, wherever I may be on the continuum from now to tomorrow.
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