Practical application of life skills

Two things happened today that caused me to take a minute to pause and reflect [Okay, it was more like grabbing the bull by the horns, wrestling it to the ground, jerking its head in the direction I wanted it to look at, and screaming in its ear, "LOOK!"]

The first was the more specific of the two. After dropping my car off for service, I hitched a ride home with my father and Mags. I got a pretty good chuckle seeing her sitting there behind the wheel of the car as if she was the one chauffeuring our butts back and forth. Her reluctance to hop in the back seat was apparent, however with a couple open windows, how could one resist? Looking in the side mirror, I was able to observe a smiling canine face, eyes half-closed as if in a trance, nose snuffling away at what I can only imagine to be a smorgasbord of smells too enticing to even bother thinking of anything else. Pure bliss for those moments in time, everything else be damned. Talk about living in the moment--being fully present in the moment. I need to be more like a dog.

[If my beach bum surfer boy reincarnation falls through, I will happily settle for a carefree dog. Perhaps the carefree dog of a surfer?]

The second thing that happened today was a combination of a few things. The most relevant I've considered before, but today it became more and more apparent. My job is beginning to destroy me, however, I feel like I should be taking more advantage of it than I allow it to bleed from me. Working with the public is difficult, and my patience levels have more or less been obliterated. Yet, I want to try and be more Buddhist in my ways. More calm and composed. I recognize the possibility of the hypocritical nature of my day-to-day relations with people if I'm barely holding myself back from asking them how stupid they are. This... daily endeavor is a perfect training ground for practicing patience. In fact, dare I say it would even be ideal to practice compassion?

[I'm also glad that you can't see me wincing at the thought of practicing compassion with some of these people. I swear unless you have worked with the general public, you have no idea whatsoever what this could even entail.]

But see! Training grounds. Small steps. Let us ignore the fact that it's sort of like being tossed in the deep end before you even learn how to tread water, let alone swim for the edge of the pool. Ha! Who am I to take the easy path anyway? Not to mention that my patience and understanding and compassion must remain in full swing when I get home. I'm not going to touch that now... You get the general idea.

So my two lessons: 1) Be more like a dog. 2) Practice patience and compassion at work, the optimal training arena.

Somehow I think if I can manage the first, the second will fall more easily into place.

Compassion, Part 1 (cont.)

I wrote this down from that website:

“Today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”

I've been pretty good at reading it in the morning when I wake up. I figure if I can get in the habit of doing that, then soon my groggy, "Are you serious, I have to wake up? Dude, give me a break..." brain might remember it so I can sort of repeat it for a while instead of just saying it a couple times before I actually get out of bed.

Once I have that down, I am going to try and work on getting up earlier again--I was doing so well at the beginning of the year--and meditate.

For the first couple days in work I was doing pretty well with keeping calm and keeping these ideas in mind. But the public, bless them, they are just... amazing. They can whittle away those defenses like you wouldn't believe. Not that the actual job is much better at times. (I almost walked out today.) But the idea is to keep going right? Little by little... Keep it up, and I'll get there.

Right?

Compassion, part 1

I think I'm going to try this out. Or if I have some more time later, look for something similar.

Like most people, I think I have a handle on empathy. I can pretty well put myself in someone else's shoes and more often than not, if I spend some time on it, I can even understand reasoning and actions, even when I don't agree with it.

But I feel I need to be more compassionate. I want to be more compassionate. Does this mean my sarcastic wit will suffer?

Possibly. =)

I also think I need to re-examine some of my relationships... The ones that have become more harmful than helpful. Perhaps this can go hand in hand?

We'll see.