On Remembering to s-l-o-w d-o-w-n

"If you are not happy here and how, you never will be."
~ Taisen Deshimaru

Things have been so busy and stressful at work lately that I feel like I've been stuck on fast-forward for weeks. I get to moving so fast that I can't find the brakes. Even worse, I'm not even enjoying the scenery along the way.

"Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free:
Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing."
~ Chuang Tzu

I've mentioned before that there really is no such thing as multi-tasking. Yes, I know that sounds a little crazy, coming from a mom. I mean, we spend most of our lives multi-tasking right?

Not really. We can only ever, really, do one thing at a time.

So how do we cook breakfast, do dishes, help with school work, make a shopping list, do laundry, and all the million other mundane things we do all at the "same" time every day?

We don't. We switch our attention back and forth from one to the next to the next, like jugglers. We toss one ball up, catch another on the way down and then attend to the one in the other hand.

We've learned to alternate between multiple tasks very, very quickly (is it any wonder we are always so tired?) without really ever giving our full and complete attention to any one of them. But, hey, these are just boring, everyday, unimportant tasks ... right?

"Monotony is the law of nature.
Look at the monotonous manner in which the sun rises.
The monotony of necessary occupations
is exhilarating and life-giving."
~ Gandhi

I know that I sometimes feel like I couldn't possibly get through the week without being able to shuffle and juggle and bounce back and forth between all of my various tasks at work and at home.

But ...

Maybe it's better to slow down and stop trying to keep all of the balls in the air at the same time. Focus on just one task. Finish it. Move on to the next. Enjoy the moment, whatever it may be.

There is a certain happiness and peace to be found in doing just One. Thing. At. A. Time. In being fully in the moment. In doing the laundry. Washing the dishes. Making the bed. Bathing the kids. In concentrating fully on THIS task. THIS moment. The ONLY moment.

"There are no mundane things outside of Buddhism
and there is no Buddhism outside of mundane things
~ Yuan-Wu

Sometimes I need to STOP. And remind myself of this.

To remember that happiness is not to be found in scratching things off a to-do list. That happiness is not something that just happens after you're done with your mundane tasks ... later ... some day ...

That "happy" really can be found in something as simple as slowing down and giving your full attention to this very moment.

"Those who seek Dharma in the depths,
are those who leave it behind in the shallows."
~ Shido Munan

"A lifetime is not what’s between the moments of birth and death.
A lifetime is one moment between my two little breaths.
The present, the here, the now.That’s all the life I get.
I live each moment in full, in kindness, in peace, without regret."
~ Chade Meng