In a meditation group the other day, we were drinking tea, and meditating on the wondrous fact that the water in our teacups was once a cloud.
Someone shared: “I had this thought that all the water on the planet is is all the water that ever will be on planet earth. I have no idea if that’s true or not, but I don’t often get thoughts like that…”
I shared that I had a similar thought recently: That soap is awesome.
Soap is this magical thing that allows me to wash grease off things.
Soap molecules are mixed hydrophobic-hydrophilic and forms micelles, which does the super-awesome thing of dissolving grease:
I don’t think about the awesomeness of soap, or water, nearly enough.
I just watched this moment in an podcast with Suleika Jaoad, a writer who is living with leukemia. She was told by her doctor to “live every day as if it were my last”:
Sulieka finds that this “carpe diem” frame of mind leads to a sense of urgency, of taking, of panic.
More helpful for her is the mindset to “live every day as if it were my first.” This means: to seek small moments of wonder, curiosity, play, nourishment.
To find the tiny little joys.
This mindset shift puts Suleika in a state of wonder, awe, and generosity.
I recently read this poem:
My Life Is Boring
Sometimes the bills are tough, but I like my job enough and my little blue rental house and my boyfriend who loves me like it’s an action word and my dog who is old but still jolly. There’s not much else to say. Sometimes I have stomach pains or headaches. I’m trying to eat more protein and greens. I’m working on my writing. My life isn’t very exciting. And I’m grateful everyday. In a world that promotes exhaustion and drama and pain. I’m grateful everyday. And I still have to remind myself, this is enough. Because my little pocket companion is always buzzing just to tell me that I could be richer and hotter if only I bothered to buy that retinol cream. I could be famous just like everybody. I could have extra rooms and extra bags and eye cream for my bags and some filler so I don’t feel so empty and ozempic so I don’t take up too much space in my Malibu mansion bought with millions of views of me mouthing let them eat cake while babies starve and politicians lie through their teeth pointing blood stained fingers at each other. Instead, I’m stocking up on toilet paper and bottles of water. I’m filling up my tank. My life is boring and I’m grateful everyday.Grateful for soap. Grateful for water. Grateful for YouTube Videos and poems that point the way. Grateful for the glow of this computer screen, at 6:06am. Grateful for my hungry belly and sore throat. Grateful for meditation groups where we can gather and talk about the awesomeness of water, and of soap.
Grateful for you, reading this!
Happy almost new year!