The importance of simplicity...

A new beginning 12/28/2010

The importance of simplicity: I love simplicity but it is difficult for me to keep things simple...Not sure why. My brain is complicated and after so many years I know that…but the practice of remembering it is more difficult than I ever knew it would be. I guess I thought that simple meant “easy”. That is not really true. It seems that [what I know] is easy because it is long lived and practiced…but there is nothing easy about what I know or what I have known my entire life. When I actually go back to see where the patterns came from or how they emerged I am brought back to my mother and father. That was a long time ago! My mother was the consummate multi-tasker. After all if you had five children and a husband that was not around during the week [only on weekends for bowling and drinks with friends] you’d learn to multi-task too. I guess I am like my mother; I can and usually do way more than one thing at a time. I’d like to focus on one thing at a time; I imagine that to be very Zen-like and peaceful. BUT for now, I am pleased to be having this dialog, even with myself, about simplicity. I know the practice is long and right now this is all I’ve got to give.

Peace is my goal. I want and love to be good at what I do/or am doing. I always want to best my last performance whatever it is I do. That for me has been my personal challenge throughout my lifetime. That has been ok with me up to now; I am tired and want to love the moments, one at a time. I want to embrace that instance that I do the dishes or walk outside to get something from the car. I want to look up and love seeing the mountains with fresh snow and feel the crisp air on my cheeks. I want to pet a dog and be in that moment…feeling the fur and warm loving feeling from my beloved pet. Right now, it seems that I do ten things instead of one and there is no rest…not even at night when I am in bed needing to sleep to regenerate so I can do this again.

My practice for the past decade has been to be independent and productive, to teach others how to be productive and self motivated; to pay attention to the strengths they posses and put order into their lives so that they can live the life they want and create. It seems that I have forgotten the main or key points to this kind of work; keep it simple, work from your strengths; be present and pay attention. So today, I say thank you and begin again.