Well,
I may never become a Zen Monk. First, I obviously do not have the discipline, concentration,
or anatomy, though some of my friends have said . . . let us just say I have “great
courage” for a woman. Anyone that knows me well knows my equilibrium has been
off for decades.
This lack of balance in my life might explain the beautiful purple cast I borrowed for
eight weeks after simply stepping off a curb at work or the catastrophic
landing I made after deciding I was still age ten and jumped up on the
trampoline with all the kids at a 4th of July party. I did mark the
event and the two surgeries to follow with a “black cast” to serve as a
reminder of my moment of adventurous stupidity.
Now,
yet to be explained is why watches seem to stop (forever) when I wear them and for years I
was told by my office team that I made their computers malfunction
when I came near. I am fairly certain they did not lock me in my office because
I was the mean boss but simply wanted to protect their computer systems. Though I never knew how fast time was flying, I must say my computer always worked great but I was living in life balance oblivion.
I
am not one to walk a tightrope through life, though I was a promising gymnast as
a child . . . that is, until I got up on the kitchen sink and slipped
into one of those old Coke glasses. Severing some tendons in my foot changed that career
path. I borrowed a cast then too.
In fact, that reminds me of another story. Fast
forward approximately nine years; I was up on a mountain just staring out at an
amazing Phoenix nightscape. Though I was not practicing my Ashtanga Ujjayi breathing
during that phase of life, I was breathing in the air and felt free . . . that is, until an
AC/DC song came on and I decided to become lead singer with a bottle of Strawberry
Hill Boonesfarm wine in my hand. I will save you from the details on the number
of stitches and the following year my best friend Paige had to blow dry my hair
because my left hand was paralyzed (yes, I am left handed). However, it is worth
mention, that imbalance was the mark of no longer apprenticing as the youngest
tattoo artist in Arizona and my future career.
While
I could look back on some incidents that have occurred during my life as
painful events that removed opportunities, instead, I choose to believe my
accidents did lead me exactly where I am supposed to be, not to mention, to be ever
so cognizant of where I am stepping!
I
choose to take my life lessons, whether silly and potentially embarrassing accidents, along lessons learned during interactions with others throughout my life, to lead me to what I am striving to
achieve – what I call, simply living in the Zen. I am not an overly religious
person though I do hold to my own strong personal spiritual beliefs, that if
necessary, I would die for . . . just as those who came before me throughout
time. I am confident in my strength not to bow down to an ideal or to be dictated
to by anyone while knowing I must never wield the sword of prejudice and judgment
in order to force my beliefs on anyone else.
To
me, “Living in My Zen” is making every attempt to give unto the world goodness
and to treat others with empathy, love, and compassion while being mindful of our
most important task - to serve others with purpose. Of course, a winding path
could pose a challenge to me at times being I may be somewhat asymmetric, but
then what is a task to accomplish without a couple of challenges! ~ Written
by Kym L. Pasqualini