Write about a less-than-remarkable aspect of your life.
David Sedaris remarked during an interview with January Magazine that “My students were middle-class kids who were ashamed of their background. They felt like unless they grew up in poverty, they had nothing to write about…I felt sorry for these kids, that they thought their whole past was absolutely worthless because it was less than remarkable.”
Easy to do when feeling shameful and meaninglessness.
Easy to do when grappling with the reality of impermanence and death while I watch my last living grandparent slip further into the holds of dementia, losing her abilities to do anything for herself.
Easy to do when trying to explain to myself, and anyone else who wants to know, where I fit between not having a paying job and not yet being a mom.
And really easy to do when comparing myself to Chuck Norris knowing I will never be able to build a snowman from rain or delete the recycle bin from my computer.
Alright, maybe I don’t feel totally shameful about the last one, but, let’s face it, I’ll never be able to count to infinity. Twice.
So, yes, if I want to go down that road thinking that nothing in my life is really all that remarkable, I can do it. Just may not be productive, is all.
Remarkable realization # 1? I was born a human. Not a chicken. Not an ant. And, it may just be a supposition, but most reading this post were probably also born humans.
We have about a one in 400 trillion chance of being born human. To put that into perspective, I like the version I’ve heard in my mindfulness classes.
Think about one life preserver that has been thrown somewhere in some ocean and there is just one turtle in all the oceans, swimming underwater…somewhere. The probability of you, me, us existing today is the same as that turtle sticking its head out of the water straight through the life preserver…on the first try.
That’s kind of remarkable, huh?
What about breathing? Everyone reading this is breathing, right? How often do we really focus on the fact that we breathe? Probably not all that often. Something so simple, yet needed to live.
And eating? Everyone has to do that too.
I sat and ate breakfast with no distractions. Call it uni-tasking…not something that is really valued much in this culture. I didn’t have my phone out, Facebook open, music on. Silence. I just focused on what I was eating.
When I went on my 10-day meditation retreat this year, I ate in silence for every meal. It was difficult at first. I not only wanted to be entertained, but I was concerned I might be chewing too loud.
But then it became somewhat liberating not feeling like I had to be doing something else simultaneously or I was wasting time. It was nice to not be concerned about having someone ask you a question and then worrying about talking with your mouth full.
I highly recommend eating in silence sometime.
Ok, so I know these are very basic, but sometimes it’s good to start there as opposed to starting with a comparison of you versus, well, Chuck Norris.
It’s not too hard to find something remarkable even if, at times, I just plain and simply don’t feel like trying to.
It was a song that prompted me to write today. Feeling dumpy, I’m not sure any of the above would have been written had I not had a little inspiration. Hearing music, comprehending lyrics, letting it inspire you. I guess I could call that kind of remarkable.
Thanks to Michael Franti for his music today. Hard not to move a little to this one. Smile a little.
looking without striving 