A super great thing about being really sick

One great thing about being chronically sick and disabled is that I have less energy for my own bullshit.

I have less energy for all the mental trips and games I normally play with myself and with other people. Of course these things are old habits but it’s much easier to drop a pointless and bad habit when you see immediately how sick it makes you.

So it’s hard to feel sorry for myself when I see that being sick is helping me to get real. I see how little time I have left and I don’t want to waste it.

We should all see how little time we have left. When we truly know how short our life is we have a chance to sober up and quit wasting this precious opportunity.

And what is this rare and precious opportunity?

It’s our chance to cut through all our habits and games to the very core of the reason why we’re here which is to love. Love what? Love whom? Love how?

Just love.

This isn’t a self-improvement project.

Be who you truly are which is utterly naked like the wind and the rain and the earth, not pretending to be something or someone else.

Do it now. It can only happen in the space of now. 

Let yourself be

Note: as I’ve gotten sicker writing has become more difficult. In order to continue this blog I’m trying a new format: short and pithy.

Today in a brief email to a friend I wrote: “To say that my health is poor is an understatement. But I’m still alive to joyful walk my spiritual path.”

If you don’t have a spiritual path that’s okay because what I really mean is that so long as we’re alive we have the chance to experience a moment of gentle peace, a quiet space of dignity that is the true nature of who we are. 

Take one moment. Sit silently. Be still.

Beyond worry and fear is peace. Beyond hope is a vast space of fearless freedom. Don’t think about it. Let go and taste it.

Being is not the same as doing. For a few moments each day quit doing.

Let go. Let go of everything. Just be. It’s easy. For just a few moments every day be who you truly are. It will slowly become a habit.

All of life is lived in one moment. We are alive now.