Smiling at the World

  When I think about how there are always things to do, the metaphor of accumulation comes to mind. We are literally "stuffing ourselves" with the things that we need to do, need to have, need to become. But there is so little time to just look at the fact that we are alive here and now. When we stand on this ball of rock so far from the sun, could we ever have predicted that we would be here? And so, we should find times in between the struggles of life to be happy and to allow both good and bad to arise. "Good" and "bad", in fact, are only judgments that we temporarily make about things that are going to change anyway, regardless of what we do.

I remember years ago when I applied for a summer job at Canadian Tire, when the employer told me I needed a car to get the job. When I told him I didn't drive or have a car, he apologized that the application wasn't clear or explicit enough, but invited me to stay and have a coffee while he interviewed the fellow applicant for the job. For whatever reason, I felt this to be an apt metaphor at the time. I think what he was saying to me is that there is a lot of time in this world to acquire nothing, and just sit to enjoy a coffee. And I will never forget that day, because it also allowed me to be "just me", without the fear of loss or gain.