My day's tale begins with the latter. In the children's book The Little Engine That Could, the eponymous choo-choo exclaimed in the face of adversity: "I think I can, I think I can!" Well, today I was quite sure that I couldn't. I certainly wanted to write--and nudge myself ever closer to completion of my first book--but I was convinced that the curve ball in my daily routine would lead to a strikeout. With work being done on the house and sounds too dissimilar from the usual avian fioritura (I do so love the birds; see yesterday's post), I declared the day a wash and closed my laptop.
In my meditation practice I'm learning to bear witness to every sound, even the ones I might label discordant, but for some reason affecting that perspective today seemed impossible. Perhaps the lesson lies in my approach: affecting or imposing a perspective is fruitless. There's discipline and there's fruitlessness. The former won out by late morning after I relaxed into the feeling of wordlessness yet resolved that at some point in the very near future I would make some addition to my manuscript. And by late afternoon, I did.
So in your respective endeavor, if you think you can, go with it! And if you think you can't, go with that, too. One of the following two possibilities should avail you. You'll find that you're as contrary as I seem to be so the tables (by tables, I mean mood) will turn and you'll be back on track. Failing that, your frustration with inertia will eventually rouse you and... well, that could be "interesting" for the persons closest to you. So keep an open mind, hope that it's contagious, and surrender!
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