Learning to Drive: Driving Tip #1: Take a Joy Ride
2/16/18
Those of you who know me well, know I love to meditate daily. I have many books with thoughts of the day, etc to meditate, or there's my favorite "walking meditation". I particularly love the poet Mark Nepo's "The Book of Awakening". I've owned it for years. It's broken down by thoughts that correspond to each day of the year. No matter how many times I visit this book, it always seems to speak directly to me and what I'm facing. Today's reading/meditation was about...misery. It opened with, "If peace comes from seeing the whole, then misery stems from a loss of perspective." Wow. Then it delivered the roundhouse kick, "In actuality, misery is a moment of suffering allowed to become everything." I took a deep breath. I did the suggested follow up meditation. And from there, I give you my next entry. From there I'll tell you about my joy ride.
It was three days ago. The day before the dreaded Valentine's Day. Should I be sad? Should I be bitter? Indifferent? I decided to use this time as a driving lesson. I need to add some income streams to my life. I need to discover things that I like to do and would take joy in while helping myself to become more independent. I remembered that I worked in a flower shop in college. I loved it, I loved the smell, the peace of gazing at buckets and buckets of beautiful flowers waiting to bring joy to others. I also remembered that flower shops have two INSANELY busy holidays in the calendar year; so busy that they hire extra help to process incoming flowers and deliver tons of arrangements. Valentines Day was the busiest of the two. (Mother's Day, of course, is second. Note to all, call your mother.) So, time to buckle up for a driving lesson. In this case, it was literally and figuratively a driving lesson. I drive a Prius. I have for years, and I love it. I love controlling my tiny little world of the compact vehicle as I zip around the maze of DFW freeways. But in the name of new streams of income, a few weeks ago I stopped in to my local flower shop and asked if they needed any extra help delivering flowers for the busy Valentine's holiday. They happily accepted my offer of daytime delivery help and hence, there I was on a deliciously cool February morning, at 8am holding the keys to a U-Haul van loaded with gorgeous flowers.
If there had been a hidden camera, I'd be a YouTube sensation right now. I talked to myself as I climbed into the VERY large vehicle. "Deep breaths, don't panic Katrina." I talked to the van, "It's just you and me, girl. Let's DO this!" I talked to the flowers. "Everyone buckled up back there?" I proceeded to chatter my way through a day of deliveries. Easing the big van around corners, you learn very quickly that the turning radius of a huge van is SLIGHTLY different than that of the Prius. ("Sorry!" and "Alright, I saw you already, no need to get all honk happy!" and my favorite "NAMASTE BUDDY!") Finding parking spots in small business lots was excellent exercise. ("I'm good with walking, I'll just park here in this abandoned lot eons away from unsuspecting well parked cars.")
Then, EUREKA; cruising through neighborhoods delivering beautiful professions of love, I realized something. I was HAPPY. My problems were all still there, but, for now, in this moment, I was happy. Now I know I'm not going to make a full time independent living becoming a flower delivery gal. I know I have to find more steady streams of income. But I also know that I have ways that I work well, and ways that I work miserably, and thus, poorly. I have to find the joy in what I'm doing. I can never be someone who punches the clock to pay a stack of bills from day to day until life has passed by in a blur. I'm willing to be happy with a LOT less financially in order to find joy spiritually. (And seriously, it's not like I've ever figured out Alexa, or Netflix, or Dropbox...)
My current delight was coming from the simple act of being present and in control of my actions; and my actions were in the name of service. I am a singer to my core. The greatest joy of singing for me is, again, in service. There's always a heart in need of touching, a mind in need of calming, a soul in need of soothing, and often times all three of those are my own. Music cuts through, directly to the need. As I rumbled through the streets of Arlington, talking to my sweet flowers and giving them a pep talk before handing them over to their new owner, ("Go share the love guys, you can DO this!") I saw that I was doing the exact same thing that I love to do while singing. In giving joy, I received joy back, threefold.
And so, this morning, as I widened my vision, broadening my perspective beyond a seemingly miserable present situation, suddenly I saw what I knew to be there, waiting to be acknowledged:
-friends reaching out continually with kind words of love and support and offers of practical and extremely helpful advice
-a sweet daughter helping me with muscle building exercises after weight loss (No more "Ms Puny Pants"!)
-my own talents waiting for me to claim and own them
-a sweet lady in a small local flower shop handing me keys and paying me for 8 hours, regardless, because that's her policy
What a life. What endless opportunities. What joy is waiting down the road for me to give and receive.
What a ride. 💚
Those of you who know me well, know I love to meditate daily. I have many books with thoughts of the day, etc to meditate, or there's my favorite "walking meditation". I particularly love the poet Mark Nepo's "The Book of Awakening". I've owned it for years. It's broken down by thoughts that correspond to each day of the year. No matter how many times I visit this book, it always seems to speak directly to me and what I'm facing. Today's reading/meditation was about...misery. It opened with, "If peace comes from seeing the whole, then misery stems from a loss of perspective." Wow. Then it delivered the roundhouse kick, "In actuality, misery is a moment of suffering allowed to become everything." I took a deep breath. I did the suggested follow up meditation. And from there, I give you my next entry. From there I'll tell you about my joy ride.
It was three days ago. The day before the dreaded Valentine's Day. Should I be sad? Should I be bitter? Indifferent? I decided to use this time as a driving lesson. I need to add some income streams to my life. I need to discover things that I like to do and would take joy in while helping myself to become more independent. I remembered that I worked in a flower shop in college. I loved it, I loved the smell, the peace of gazing at buckets and buckets of beautiful flowers waiting to bring joy to others. I also remembered that flower shops have two INSANELY busy holidays in the calendar year; so busy that they hire extra help to process incoming flowers and deliver tons of arrangements. Valentines Day was the busiest of the two. (Mother's Day, of course, is second. Note to all, call your mother.) So, time to buckle up for a driving lesson. In this case, it was literally and figuratively a driving lesson. I drive a Prius. I have for years, and I love it. I love controlling my tiny little world of the compact vehicle as I zip around the maze of DFW freeways. But in the name of new streams of income, a few weeks ago I stopped in to my local flower shop and asked if they needed any extra help delivering flowers for the busy Valentine's holiday. They happily accepted my offer of daytime delivery help and hence, there I was on a deliciously cool February morning, at 8am holding the keys to a U-Haul van loaded with gorgeous flowers.
If there had been a hidden camera, I'd be a YouTube sensation right now. I talked to myself as I climbed into the VERY large vehicle. "Deep breaths, don't panic Katrina." I talked to the van, "It's just you and me, girl. Let's DO this!" I talked to the flowers. "Everyone buckled up back there?" I proceeded to chatter my way through a day of deliveries. Easing the big van around corners, you learn very quickly that the turning radius of a huge van is SLIGHTLY different than that of the Prius. ("Sorry!" and "Alright, I saw you already, no need to get all honk happy!" and my favorite "NAMASTE BUDDY!") Finding parking spots in small business lots was excellent exercise. ("I'm good with walking, I'll just park here in this abandoned lot eons away from unsuspecting well parked cars.")
Then, EUREKA; cruising through neighborhoods delivering beautiful professions of love, I realized something. I was HAPPY. My problems were all still there, but, for now, in this moment, I was happy. Now I know I'm not going to make a full time independent living becoming a flower delivery gal. I know I have to find more steady streams of income. But I also know that I have ways that I work well, and ways that I work miserably, and thus, poorly. I have to find the joy in what I'm doing. I can never be someone who punches the clock to pay a stack of bills from day to day until life has passed by in a blur. I'm willing to be happy with a LOT less financially in order to find joy spiritually. (And seriously, it's not like I've ever figured out Alexa, or Netflix, or Dropbox...)
My current delight was coming from the simple act of being present and in control of my actions; and my actions were in the name of service. I am a singer to my core. The greatest joy of singing for me is, again, in service. There's always a heart in need of touching, a mind in need of calming, a soul in need of soothing, and often times all three of those are my own. Music cuts through, directly to the need. As I rumbled through the streets of Arlington, talking to my sweet flowers and giving them a pep talk before handing them over to their new owner, ("Go share the love guys, you can DO this!") I saw that I was doing the exact same thing that I love to do while singing. In giving joy, I received joy back, threefold.
And so, this morning, as I widened my vision, broadening my perspective beyond a seemingly miserable present situation, suddenly I saw what I knew to be there, waiting to be acknowledged:
-friends reaching out continually with kind words of love and support and offers of practical and extremely helpful advice
-a sweet daughter helping me with muscle building exercises after weight loss (No more "Ms Puny Pants"!)
-my own talents waiting for me to claim and own them
-a sweet lady in a small local flower shop handing me keys and paying me for 8 hours, regardless, because that's her policy
What a life. What endless opportunities. What joy is waiting down the road for me to give and receive.
What a ride. 💚
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