There is a sign on my bathroom door that reads, “What are you practicing right now?”.  Below the question there are three possible answers, “Acceptance, Enjoyment, Enthusiasm.”  Sometimes the sign, a quote by Eckhart Tolle, is covered up by a towel, sometimes I read it without answering, and sometimes the answer is “none of these.”

When the later is the case I know there is a lesson that I am not learning.  And when there is a lesson I am not learning, I know I will have the opportunity to learn it over and over again.  This is a comfort but can also be a source of fear for me.  Life will make the lesson louder and more visible the longer I delay my own learning.

First I’ll stub my toe on my rush out the door, the first moment in which I could have brought acceptance to myself being a little late.  Then I’ll drop my keys in a puddle.  Next I might get honked at after merging too close to another car. And later I might make 800 copies of a flyer at work that I was rushing to get out, when I only had to make 200.  As I’m throwing the paper mournfully into the recycling bin while apologizing to the ether for my wastefulness it will then dawn on me that I need to slow down.  Take a deep breath.  Close my eyes, stop feeding my thoughts, watch my mind.  After that things flow with ease, I am relaxed because I have learned that stress and rushing actually causes more mishaps, and creates more stress.  It wasn’t until I wasted 600 pages of paper that I let myself learn the lesson.

What would have happened if I had learned the lesson after first stubbing my toe?  What would have happened if I had practiced acceptance of the moment I was in, instead of rushing to get somewhere else? That is what I want to find out.  Life is an entirely different school when you allow yourself to learn the lessons it is teaching you, as opposed to fighting against, ignoring, or denying them.  What happens to “problems” when you allow yourself to learn the lessons they are teaching you?  They are no longer problems, but opportunities for a deeper, more enjoyable, fully conscious life.  I will offer up lessons I learn along the way, moments of joy and clarity, and spiritual solutions for “problems.”  Nothing I say will be new, everything here has been said before by many people, and is in no way a product of my own intellect.  I am exactly the same as every other being and am here to learn the lessons we are all being taught.  Join me on my personal journey, and above all listen to yourself because no one knows you as well as you do.