TIPS 33-35: Mother Bear, Recovery, and Smart Phones

MEDITATION PRACTICE FOR MOMS AND DADS, Tip #33: Most moms, dads, pet parents, and other caregivers have had at least a taste of the power of "Mother Bear": If their child is threatened in any way, all fear or conventional thought disappears and you attain almost super-powers to defend and protect your loved one. I once dove, literally without a thought, into the middle of a violent attack on my dog, grabbed the jaws of a Cujo-sized million-pound Rottweiler and pried him off of my little Schipperke. The sheer laser focus of my mission sent the ginormous canine whimpering away by some unspoken force that came out of me that apparently was something to be reckoned with. I was totally in the moment, without thought or distraction or fear, and was gifted a brief but powerful glimpse of the power of the freedom that this pure state of mind bequeaths. Imagine what we would be capable of if one could maintain this state of mind during the daily, "Nothing Special" routines of life. Without the drama, without the threat---but just with the experience---the powerful peace of human existence without suffering.

 MEDITATION PRACTICE FOR MOMS AND DADS, Tip #34: One of the phenoms of this practice is that as you learn to stop fighting with and start surrendering to the reality of your present experience, reality starts dancing the cha-cha with you. To use the previously referred-to illness as an example: When I stopped trying to plow through my sickness grudgingly and just relaxed (as much as one can with a head cold) into "being sick," an amazing thing happened. Life slowed waaaaay down. The laundry list was the same, the kids' needs were the same, the house just as messy, the emails just as extensive, the daily schedule just as busy. But somehow everything got slower, and I could hear and see much more beyond the senses that congestion was obscuring. Went to water the garden and discovered that the garden wasn't a place to water and pull weeds from--it just made me happy, and I noticed for the first time that some of the weeds were attracting butterflies. Went to the Citizens Co-op and consumed massive quantities of locally grown, organic vegetables, and the whole experience of having such a place so close to home and being able to self-nourish so easily got me downright mushy with appreciation. Languished in a loooong forward bend. Picked up the kids and just felt like kissing them. Who would've thought that a state of recovery could actually procure a state of Grace? Bows.

MEDITATION PRACTICE FOR MOMS AND DADS, Tip #35: Got a Smart Phone? You know, that little palm-sized doodad with all of your emails, Facebook, Apps, Alarms, Calendar Appointments, and Games? Congratulations, you've got distraction. Got kids? You know, the little hip-high beings who want to throw the damn thing out the window because you are only halfway paying attention to them when the palm-sized doodad is within arm's reach? Congratulations, you've got real live Keepers of the Present Moment.