Where Are You Right Now?

"You take yourself too seriously!  You are too damn important in your own mind.  That must be changed!"

Carlos Castaneda

Today I can remember that I am no better - and no worse - than anyone else.

Go With the Flow is a good reminder to help me stop going against the current of life.  When I find myself worn out I need to check to see if it's the result of swimming against today's current.

The more I pursue the elusive, just out of reach, state of serenity and peacefulness that I crave, the more I run into the concept of Mindful living.  Being in the moment, staying in the moment, aware of sounds and touch and coolness and warmth, One Day at a Time in A.A. speak.  How much of my life is on autopilot!  My brain taking care of a task that isn't in front of me while I'm oblivious to what's happening to me, right now.

Here's a story: a Washington newspaper commissioned a study where they paid a violinist to busk in a local subway station.  In the time he was playing about 2,000 people passed by, either coming or going, many of them busy with work and families and understandably preoccupied, living in the future or the past and not in the present.  Cameras showed that 6 people paused to listen for a while.  6/2,000 = .003 or three tenths of a percent.  A rounding error.  Statistically insignificant.  A sure bet.   Here's the catch: the busker was a world famous violinist playing one of the most difficult Beethoven violin concertos written by that musical genius on a 3 1/2 million dollar violin.

Talk about a missed opportunity