Daily meditation for February 7th
Adapting
As animals, we all can adapt to our environment as it changes or as we move through it. When we get cold, we can put on a jacket. When we get warm, we can take off a layer. Even in the artificial world, we can adapt to different systems and ways of doing things. As humans, we also have the technology and know-how to change the environment to suit our needs. We can take these technologies for granted, forgetting that we are a product of nature.
When we make the environment adapt to our needs, we are being viruses. We refuse to adapt. We always have to fiddle with the thermostat to get the temperature just right. If we have to adjust our seats in cars, the way things at work need to be is always the way the environment adjusts to us. We’re always making the environment adapt to us. We are so separate from nature because we believe everything can be changed, and that it isn’t our responsibility. Why do you think we bitch about the weather? We will diminish nature for our own comfort.
Just let go. Just be cold. Just sit. Just do the job to the best of your ability, given the situation you are in. Try adapting to the environment. Try to accept the world around you as it is now. Not how it used to be, or how you wish it would be, but as it is right now. Become one with nature. Become a part of the Universe instead of believing you are owed comfort. We are at the point where we confuse discomfort with trauma.
Our inability to adapt includes making your diet everyone else’s problem. When all the restaurants have to accommodate your dietary requirements, only a few remain available. The people you are with, the ones with no dietary laws, have to be limited to your choices, and while they are adapting to your needs because they are selfless and not making everything about them, they eat where you have to eat and when you have to eat, and they put up with your lack of compromise.
When you change the environment to suit your needs, that means someone else has to adapt to your new environment, or change it if they would like it. This is how wars start. You turn up the heat; that means someone else has to adapt to your preferred environment. If you won’t meet people on their terms because you aren’t willing to adapt, you are self-centered, and that means you aren’t a part of the Universe, but just a floating piece of virus.
Prayer
God of People Who Say They Have OCD and Probably Don’t, But Try to Act as They Do,
Hear my prayer,
for your followers are changing everything,
so that they can be as close to happiness as they’ll let themselves be,
but being really annoying to anyone who has to share space with them,
and the patience to handle those people.
God of HVAC and Water Heater Kings,
May I be okay with the way things are?
Instead of turning dials, shifting seats, changing procedures, washing hands, upset if the muffin they get everyday isn’t there, making things go in some order especially an order that it isn’t in right now, turning things down and turning things up, making decisions that things should be just so and not anything else even if someone would benefit from it being not just so, rearrange things right after someone arranges something…
and just let things be.
God of the Fool,
let me carry the things I need,
in one bag,
that will allow me to adapt to most situations,
and let me travel fearless and be a friend wherever I go.
Amen.
Craft
Someday, you might need to get out of it too quickly. I’m not going to go through why one might need to get out of town quickly. Still, sometimes we can’t say goodbye or have our favorite slice of pizza for the last time. Still, we need to be on a plane, a train, or a car driven by someone from the Greek or Lebanese community who specializes in delivering people to different places without all the troublesome ID and paperwork that sometimes go with getting into places.
You must have a backpack that is small. Don’t get a backpacking backpack, but a nice one; getd get one for school. Use a neutral color that doesn’t attract attention from behind. You will need to walk through crowds of people anonymously. The most popular brand and model is perfect. Modelair of wool socks – it must be wool so that you can wash and dry quickly.
A rolled-up pant and jacket – they make wrinkle-free travel suits, but look wrinkly, but you are on the move, not at a photo shoot for J.Crew.
One wrinkled J.Crew button-down shirt. An anonymous color.
Toiletries: toothpaste, toothbrush, travel-size body soap, shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream with a razor. You don’t need much, since you can steal or buy these items anywhere in the world.
Cash. A good amount in small bills in varied amounts. Also, a Visa that you don’t use. This card is just for this situation. The amount varies from situation to situation. $20,000 $ to 50,000 is ideal for an unspecified period.
Passport and Social Security card. This is just for dealing with anything when you set up your new life. You can get a new identity from the Greek or Lebanese friends if you are literally disappearing or pulling an insurance scam.
I always like to have a journal, stationery, envelopes, and stamps.
A small caliber pistol if you don’t need to move in and out of airports.
Have this not in plain sight, but somewhere that is very easy to grab but won’t get stolen. I chose a place that won’t change, like where I live or where I work, but somewhere that will be constant.
If you don’t think you’ll ever need to disappear quickly and silently, you are not living a full enough life.
Goal
It is essential to be prepared for whatever life brings you. Instead of bemoaning the weather because it doesn’t suit your needs, change your needs to match the weather. If you no longer care about hiking and are now more tired, in your book, you won’t care that it is raining. See? Life is easy when you stop expecting the world to cater to your needs.