All or nothing. Yesterday’s attempt to curb the use of balms on my soul was fruitless. I balmed away. So the next question is, am I any less compulsive than in the past? It is exceedingly hard for me to determine that. I would love to take others’ word on it, but there is a deeper place that their words cannot reach.
My friend recommended meditation. I was just thinking of what to do if I’ve excluded all restless, wasteful activity, and I immediately thought of meditation. Perhaps I can explore that today. The other way of looking at it is to try to do less of any given thing. To be less overblown in my actions and passions. That is also akin to a non-exaggerated approach; simple, in the moment, one thing at a time, which I can only imagine becomes like meditation. Maybe it’s very Western of me, but I may be best at handling activities meditatively, rather than the true act of meditation.

So the risk of all this is still there: feeling my very own brand of pain. And the converse risk: feeling pleasure that I am direly aware can lead rapidly to pain. I guess that addresses the question, what’s the point of recalling happy memories: you are in truth recalling a time of openness and trustedness, which left you equally open to joy and sorrow, to paraphrase Casals. It was the time in life where you’re largely accumulating experience from the world. Later you must process those experiences and incorporate them carefully, having accumulated enough.

I noticed that I sure talk a good talk. But when it comes down to walking the walk, I’m sorely devoid. What I’d like to be able to do is have a better sense of any progress I may be making. It doesn’t seem to be enough simply to make the progress; you need to occasionally rest on your laurels. To take more of a bird’s-eye view at yourself, so you can actually tell whether change has taken place. Looking at things so myopically is generally quite discouraging. But it does make you good at analysis. Perhaps a good teacher? Not that I only deal with minutia in my teaching, but it is good to have it as an element.

originally published on 6/26/08