Stilling my mind...

Today I finished the book Still the Mind by Alan Watts. In my listening this afternoon, he discussed how the human grows just as the oak tree does- perfectly. All the acorns, whether dark or light, withered or hard, are perfect. From them, the oak tree grows, never questioning its condition. Humans, likewise, are an assortment of perfect nuts put here to grow in a certain way. Questioning the process, then, becomes silly.

The thing about humans is that we have emotions that get triggered along the way. Perhaps emotions are simply our passing judgment on the process of life. They are most definitely caused by a divergence between the expected and the what is. Watts also says that the past is just a memory, the future an expectation. Therefore, all we have is the present- one long neverending present. Along a somewhat similar thread, Dave Pelzer says, "Don't worry about tomorrow, today has enough problems of its own". It's finally starting to dawn on me this act of living in the present. My issue is now, how to stop the worrying about the future? I'm practicing just stopping it the second I notice it, from the big things, like my worrying a parent is going to cause me to get fired to the little things like wondering what route I should take to Tampa tomorrow.

After I stop myself, or still my mind, I always remind myself to trust myself. I will be able to work it out when the time comes. For now, though, my job is to just be happy dammit.


Here's part two of my niece photos. She just started modeling in front of my camera. I love to watch my niece and nephews because they're the true definition of kids. They are so excited about life. They don't stop to question it. I swear if kids can do it, so can we.