The sky begins to darken and you hear a distant rumble. The wind starts to pick up a bit and leaves blow past. Just as you feel a few drops on your face and look up at the clouds, a thunderous boom shakes you to the core. Your heart starts to race and so do your feet, looking toward the nearest building, which is 100 yards away. You start running full speed ahead, focusing only on that big red door, the protection behind it and, WHAM! You’re stopped in your tracks by a rake that was propelled by your foot straight to your face.
You lay on the ground starring up at the clouds, unable to move. Then, all of the sudden, there’s an opening in the clouds and the sun is shining directly down on you. As you begin to make your peace with your life and await the almighty to invite you up, you hear a loud voice, “Hey! What are you doing laying down there?” You realize the voice is your spouse, who continues, “the news said the storm is going to pass us by. Oh yeah, dinner is ready.”
. . . .
What does this story have to do with Mindfulness? There are times we see what we are sure is a metaphorical thunderstorm and try with all our might to escape it or avoid the downpour. While it is true that storms do come and we can benefit from being prepared, there are many instances where we would also benefit from a brief pause. Taking time out to intentionally breathe and be fully aware of the situation, will provide us more information that we can use to be ready. When we try with all our might to get away from the storm, we often cause more harm (the rake) than if we took a moment to look in another direction and see the blue skies.
Sometimes there are no blue skies, but there may be a more appropriate place to ride things out (like in the old red truck). If you just said, “wait, what red truck?”, you’re probably not alone. Just because the red truck, AKA – the mental or physical space to ride out this metaphorical storm, wasn’t there at first glance, doesn’t mean it didn’t exist. Mindfulness is not the truck, but rather what can provide us the clarity to see all the red trucks that may or may not be there.
