I received a Kindle for Christmas from my parents. Sometime mid-January, I was looking for self-help/life improvement/inspirational books. But I didn't want the conventional self-help book or anything super religious. After some research online and reading some good reviews, I decided to purchase Mark Nepo's The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have. I love all of his stories. They are just enough. Not too long, not too short. They hold my attention span, and even though short in length, they give me enough food for thought for the entire day. They have a short meditation practice at the end as well. I always want to share them with people. Sometimes I read them to my sister or my parents, or a friend. Here's todays.
Fame or Peace
Rather the flying bird, leaving no trace,
Rather the flying bird, leaving no trace,
than the going beast, marking the earth.
-Fernando Pessoa
Much of our anxiety and inner turmoil comes from living in a global culture whose values drive us from the essence of what matters. At the heart of this is the conflict between the outer definition of success and the inner value of peace.
Unfortunately, we are encouraged, even trained, to get attention when the renewing secret of life is to give attention. From performing well on tests to positioning ourselves for promotions, we are schooled to believe that to succeed we must get attention and be recognized as special, when the threshold to all that is extraordinary in life opens only when we devote ourselves to giving attention, not getting it. Things come alive for us only when we dare to see and recognize everything as special.
The longer we try to get attention instead of giving it, the deeper the unhappiness. It leads us to move through the world dreaming of greatness, needing to be verified at every turn, when feelings of oneness grace us only when we verify the life around us. It makes us desperate to be loved, when we sorely need the medicine of being loving.
One reason so many of us are lonely in our dream of success is that instead of looking for what is clear and true, we learn to covet what is great and powerful. One reason we live so far from peace is that instead of loving our way into the nameless joy of spirit, we think fame will soothe us. And while we are busy dreaming of being a celebrity, we stifle our need to see and give and love, all of which opens us to the true health of celebration.
It leaves us with these choices: fame or peace, be a celebrity or celebrate being, work all our days to be seen or devote ourselves to seeing, build an identity on the attention we can get or find out place in the beauty of things by the attention we can give.
