Don't Forget About the Mountains

Sometimes an unimportant incident
is capable of turning everything beautiful
into a moment of anxiety.
We insist on seeing the mote in the eye
and forget about the mountains,
the fields and the olive groves.

--Paulo Coelho

Listening to the inner critic inside could possibly be the most detrimental thing one could do to their happiness. As Buddha enlightens us, "there is no way to happiness, happiness is the way". Go in peace, relax, treat yourself right. Perhaps if we truly and deeply loved ourselves, the world would look completely different. We are taught that we are not worthy of such great self love and that we must criticize and serve others. Nothing could be further from the truth. We keep hearing over and over again that life is short, life is a gift BUT donate now, save this person, you are wrong because you don't agree with me, etc etc etc. So we are faced with a dilemma, what to do with this, as Mary Oliver tells us, wild and precious life? I say the best gift you can give yourself is ignoring both the inner and outer critics. Make your practice about letting go of other people's opinions and focus deep within. Cultivate happiness, serve others in a way that serves you too. Move in tune with life, in the flow. How will you know if you are in tune with life? You will feel it in the water of your being, the tides of your soul. The path of life is wrought with trials and the people love are temporary beings just like ourselves and will pass from this dimension. But if we realize our connectness, our oneness with all of life, we will realize that we are mistaking ourselves for an individual when we are a wave who is part of a vast ocean. The people we love are also waves, waves we are mistaking as separate from the ocean. Just like the wave crashes into the ocean, give into the gravity of life's push and pull and never let another's opinion steal your happiness. Move in the current of life, be easy on yourself. Give, give, give and love, love, love. And don't forget to open your eyes to the beauty all around you, in fact, you are one in the same.