Allow yourself to be tamed by the gentle and the small.

I don’t talk about it often, but twice a day, every day, I devote to meditation.  It’s been that way for years, and I cannot express how revolutionary that single choice to meditate has been.

A portion of my meditations is spent in devotion to the well-being of all my peeps.  That’s a lotta peeps, considering all life is kin to me, and vice versa.

But in the conventional sense, I’m kin to a lot of folk.  Whether friends, family or internet peeps, my prayer list for my kindred is super-long.

Sometimes, while sitting in meditative council, proffering sincere whispers of well-being on behalf of those I love, my mind interjects.

It happens to the best of us.  We’re moving in blissy waves of meta states one moment, and the next, our crest breaks into a mental analysis of the experience.  A perturbing dialogue breaks in, barking stuff like: “Wow, this is trippy! What’s all this mean? What are those curly q thingies, and when was the last time you ate?”

One such interruption came knocking at my meditative doors while in prayer, and said: “Life sure is hard, ain’t it Avia?”

At the time, It seemed a valid observation (despite the weird accent).

No matter how many assurances we have that life is supposed to be navigated by butterflies and wrapped with rainbows (and it truly is for some of us, some of the time), life still seems hard sometimes to many of us (present company included).

However, I’d like to think most of us can agree, life is supposed to be good. Or, at the very least, life has the potential to be good. Further, I’d bet a fair piece a lot of us can point a finger as to why our life isn’t good.

So if we know this stuff, why does life still seem so hard sometimes?  And what can we do to make it less hard?

I know what helps me….I always revert back to a piece of advice Kim Gould of Love Your Design gave me.  She said, “Avia, allow yourself to be tamed by the gentle and the small.”  Taking that advice has been tantamount to enlightenment.

Here’s why – the breakdown:

• Allowing oneself to be tamed by the gentle and the small forces simplicity.
• Simplicity births a sense of comfort.
• Comfort is married to gratitude.
• Gratitude is kin to love.
• Love is all we need.  (the Beatles can’t be wrong :)

That’s why I love living a totemic life; a symbolic life.  There’s magic in the simple, magic in the small things.   Becoming more focused on the smallest of miracles in our midst flips the concept of ‘hard life’ on its head.

Grateful attention to witnessing your kid’s first taste of ice cream, bird song at twilight, a fuzzy friend in a loving frenzy to see you return home, a perfect cappuccino, good soap – whatever  - the little blessings that pop into the seconds of all our lives – these little gems of joy accumulate to deflate the hot air talk about life being hard.

At least, it works for me.  There are countless opportunities for me to allow myself to be tamed by the gentle and the small; doing so keeps me in a cycle of gratitude.  Perhaps it will for you too.

Happy Thanks.  Happy Giving.