This morning I awoke after the children, grumbling and complaining. I spent a good ten minutes convincing myself otherwise. It lasted until the whine of children's requests scrambled my brain a bit more and set me back. I struggled through the breakfast routine and secured myself safely in front of my altar where usually I'm not harrassed. I started chanting - Bodhi plonked himself on my lap, this is okay I love it when they sit on my lap but my mind was drawn back into the high pitched voices - and I started to remind myself, "It's okay. You'll be alright. You'll get through this morning. You are doing really well" talk. I said my prayers, "Let me unfold Buddhahood from my life, develop a pure heart, change my karma ..."
The positivity chord really did not strike for me today until I was reminded of my good fortune. I was picking up two new dresses. I have two dresses!
Let me backtrack. Katherine Swynford, my namesake was a powerfully, strong woman from the 14th Century. Although she was connected to royalty and later on created the line of the Tudors she was poor. At age 18 she was given a dress. She now had two dresses nothing else but the dress on her back and a clean dress to wear.
Okay, so I have alot more than two dresses and here I was grumbling. I took a deep breath, looked at the beautiful blue sky around me and mouthed, thank you;
Thank you for my valuable lesson about the nature of my mind, thank you for being so patient with me, thank you for so gently showing me the light through gratitude.
"Spirituality is the technique of increasing our level of awareness. Meditation, chanting, trying to follow the spiritual principles in our daily life - all of these will help us to increase our awareness. If we can cultivate more awareness, we can overcome the obstacles that prevent us from realizing our True Self."
Ramakrishnananda Puri in Ultimate Success.
Also, I'm not sure about the coincidental or synchronicity of this event but the dresses that I was picking up were being made for me. I have worn the same dress for twenty five years and every few years or so I get another one made. Last night whilst reading Katherine I googled what 14th century women wore and sure enough my dress popped up. It is very plain, long sleeved, fitted around the bosom and to the waist then it falls out into a full skirt. ?
Ah, my dear friend, ego. Hello.
