A CONSCIOUS LIVING PRACTICE FOR TODAY – MARCH 16

One inch of joy surmounts of grief a span, because to laugh is proper to the man.
— François Rabelais

JOY AND LAUGHTER

Think about this: What if, instead of unearthing pain and buried hurts and anxieties when you take your first steps down the path toward a conscious relationship, you find joy and laughter? Would that be all right with you, or are you someone who knows in your gut that relationship is supposed to be hard: hard work, hard communication, hard thought, hard feeling? If so, I am about to disappoint you, because although there is work involved—as I believe there is with most worthwhile things—the main component of a conscious relationship (and, indeed, of a conscious life as a whole) is pure, deep, joyful, exuberant fun! I have known more joy telling the truth in relationships than I could ever have imagined possible. I see both the sadness and the humor as I think about a couple sitting at a nearby table at a restaurant recently. They never spoke to each other, but the woman watched my wife and me with narrowed eyes as we laughed throughout the several-hour dinner. As the woman was leaving, her husband already well ahead of her, she stopped at the table and shook her head: “I’ve been watching you for an hour now, and I can see you’re married,” she said, nodding toward our wedding rings. “I just don’t see what’s so funny” And with that, she hurried away. We grasped the connection she was trying to make between marriage and a dismal existence—and thanked ourselves and the universe that we don’t live in that connection.

I have said already that there are potential pitfalls, but I also want to remind you that when you turn over the rock that hides your deepest secrets, you may be surprised to find instead of dark, damp earth a garden of paradise that contains the opportunity for bliss.

A CONSCIOUS LIVING PRACTICE FOR TODAY – MARCH 16

Today, observe the myriad ways you shape and shade the pure truth. Then, notice why you are shading it. For example, if you say you’re hungry when you’re not, do you do so to be liked? Or to be nice, to get along? Begin to notice what motivates those moments of withholding the truth.

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