If you’re not enjoying your current experience like in a meditation, this is an invitation to check your expectations that are the sources of dissatisfaction. The “shoulds”, “musts” and “ought to”, the judgments can slip in easily because they are automatic, ingrained over time, and perhaps perfectly logical.
If you believe such views to be true, it can rob you of life and joy. Understandably, you want to get things right, as what society has dictated as norms. So instead of having an ideal in mind, this is a practice of discernment and sinking into your meditation as you find it, allowing yourself to open to new possibilities.
My Thoughts Like Crows, by Elizabeth English
Today, my thoughts remind me
of carrion crows, disturbing the peace
with harsh caws, with beaks
that tear into the flesh of a dead fox
the way that life tears into me.
But then I remember their black-
sheen fellowship, as they
strut along the rooftop
beyond my bedroom, as a child;
their strange sure patterning
in twos and threes
tell of hidden ways;
an animal kindgom,
I can never know.
And now, I’m strutting idly myself
off to the pet shop for puppy chews,
planning today’s excursion into
the world of ordinary joy.
And I marvel to discover
as I sit some moments more,
a stream of preciousness
that flows unbidden,
and delights me,
just because it’s there.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Image credit: Anton Kraev
Kindermind Center 