Saturday, September 10, 2016

9.1.16 Back on the chain gang


One of the best ways we can tell when we are telling ourselves stories is when it begins

 "If people really _____ me, then they would ______." 

It's really an excellent beginning, all triggered up. 

Because when do we NOT kind of feel like that, and with less clarity and more story-telling angst, tell ourselves that tale? 

If so and so really cared about my hard work on this project, they would spread the news and the value far and wide.

If this one and the other really respected me, they'd make sure to say something nice every day.

If that one really appreciated ALL I HAVE DONE FOR THEM (great material for making up stories- as if we were explicitly contracted) THEN they would do whatever it is that I want them to be doing for me. 

On and on it goes, and we, poor silly humans, are so vulnerable to our Once Upon A Time renditions.

Which lull us silly and dizzy us with sentiment and confusion.

Yet, in any tough situation, who would not be prey to these ideas?

We all are now and then, and the trick seems to be, if we truly want to be spending our time and consciousness in what actually IS, to learn how to spot a good storytelling.

It seems likely that anytime we are dunking ourselves in 'should have, would have, must have, could have, why didn't they, i deserve better', they are all such rich storylines replete with hooks to be grabbed by, and carried off quick, into a blind deaf land of sentimentality, where our self-satisfied immersion trumps the clear sharp realm of plain old honest actuality. 

And yet, that boring un-magical-thinking land of awareness is exactly where we remain empowered. 

By the present moment.

By the emotions and thoughts all by themselves, felt and identified and witnessed as they are digested and then allowed to pass on by. 

Sure, safe, plain solid ground.



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