[blockquote source=”Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have“]

“If peace comes from seeing the whole, then misery stems from a loss of perspective.

We begin so aware and grateful. The sun somehow hangs there in the sky. The little bird sings. The miracle of life just happens. Then we stub our toe, and in that moment of pain, the whole world is reduced to our poor little toe. Now, for a day or two, it is difficult to walk. With every step, we are reminded of our poor little toe.

Our vigilance becomes: Which defines our day-the pinch we feel in walking on a bruised toe, or the miracle still happening?

It is the giving over to smallness that opens us to misery. In truth, we begin taking nothing for granted, grateful that we have enough to eat, that we are well enough to eat. But somehow, through the living of our days, our focus narrows like a camera that shutters down, cropping out the horizon, and one day we’re miffed at a diner because the eggs are runny or the hash isn’t seasoned just the way we like.

When we narrow our focus, the problem seems everything.

We forget when we were lonely, dreaming of a partner. We forget first beholding the beauty of another. We forget the comfort of first being seen and held and heard. When our view shuts down, we’re up in the night annoyed by the way our lover pulls the covers or leaves the dishes in the sink without soaking them first.

In actuality, misery is a moment of suffering allowed to become everything. So, when feeling miserable, we must look wider than what hurts. When feeling a splinter, we must, while trying to remove it, remember there is a body that is not splinter, and a spirit that is not splinter, and a world that is not splinter.”[/blockquote]

My beautiful friends, I wanted to share with you this passage from author, Mark Nepo – and regarding the critical importance of perspective.

It’s true, though, isn’t it? We’ve all stubbed our toe, or bonked our head – or suffered some other sort of unpleasantness. In an instant, that searing pain threatens to upright the sanctity of our ‘settled in-ness.’

Our world collapses into this micro-instance. And, our awareness? Compresses to something no bigger than the size of what a speck might fit.

But like light passing through a keyhole, we see only just a hint of things.

Indeed, when we narrow our focus – the pain seems to be everything.

But, with just the slightest shift of our gaze – we begin to realize, that this moment of pain is not our everything.

And, this suffering – it really isn’t holding you here…but rather, it’s very much the other way around.

It’s in this letting go, my dears, that we can become so very much more.

Much love, and namaste…