Good morning, all!
A blessed and happy day to you. I hope you prosper in all ways today, whatever that means to you, and I hope you find the means within yourself to face any challenges that arise today with courage and compassion….
This morning I thought I’d pass along a great quote that a friend shared with me the other day. He didn’t know who said it, and I don’t, either. It goes like this:
“Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves, for they will always be amused.”
Haha!!!!! That’s so perfect, isn’t it? I enjoyed a nice, big belly laugh when my friend told that to me. And, as with many things that are truly funny, there’s a profound truth at the bottom of that statement, don’t you think?
We conditioned humans take ourselves awfully freaking seriously, don t we?!!!! Everything with us is life and death; we think and act as if the destiny of the world is dependent upon even our most insignificant actions; everything that happens means something of crucial importance about who we are, whether we are doing life right or wrong, whether we are a good person or bad person, and so on. As if we have any importance at all in the scheme of things! When we really look into life, and particularly our position as one of billions of similar little animals on this huge planet, in this even huger galaxy, in this even huger universe–to huge even to comprehend–it really is absurd, don’t you think, to assume that our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors have any significance at all? It’s just as absurd to take everything that happens as life and death when in fact we will all die, and really soon! What can be the significance of anything we think, feel, or do in the face of that?
The antidote to our conditioned self-absorption, as the quote says, is to laugh: to laugh at our primitive selves, at our pathetic sense of self-importance, at all the silly things we do to try to be okay in the crazy world we’ve created for ourselves…. It’s good to laugh at our human confusion, but it’s important, it seems to me, that we do it with compassion and love. I was laughing in this way just this morning at Amos, the little puppy who has recently come into my life, as he attempted to find the bottom of the empty dog food bag sitting on the porch. So dear, so silly, so cute, and so loveable. How about we all let go of our seriousness and self-centeredness, so that we may have that same relationship with ourselves, and so that we may find fond amusement in all we say and think and do? There’s not a whole lot we can do about our silliness, it seems to me, but at least we can laugh about it, and it feels so good and so healing just to laugh….
In peace,
David