Nine

We are surrounded by goodness.

I am surprised over and over again by how hard it is to live in the goodness, but in any given moment, if I take 12 seconds to close my eyes and breathe in deeply, I can visit the Goodness that is right there lingering at the edges.

A family I don't know rode by on their bicycles this afternoon.  In the 12 seconds it took for them to ride by, I heard the father letting his son know how dumb he was for holding the handle bars in the particular way the son had chosen. I knew that tone of voice - the exasperated one that is just so tired explaining so many obvious, you-should-know-by-now things to the children we share life with. It's a voice I use too often. As I heard this dad, I wanted to shout "Shut your mouth! Breathe in deep through your nose and notice the Goodness that is your family out together! Then breathe out and LET THE FUCKING HANDLEBARS GO!"

Then I wondered why I don't shout that same thing at myself more often.

But today I practiced, just a tiny bit. I breathed in once or twice with my eyes closed and felt the Goodness. It was pretty nice, and seemed to help me notice that things really are pretty good today.

I have some friends, and some friends of friends who are in the middle of the shit. I know the Goodness is hard to come by for those guys these days.  But from here, I can see it for them, and I wonder if the 12 seconds of breathing makes a difference when things are extra terrible. I'm not about to suggest it, but I wonder.

I do think this only works 12 seconds at a time. I'd be interested to know how many 12 second pauses you can get in a given day, or hour even. I bet it's not that many, but I'd also bet that you probably don't need that many to notice the Goodness more easily.

I'm going to keep at it; I'll let you know how it goes.