My partner Sarah and I have a running joke. I mean literally, we’re running when we make the joke. Running upstairs to attend to Sasha the incredible screaming sick baby, running downstairs to prevent toddler Eden from lighting his hair on fire, running to get groceries, running to the shower, to daycare, to cancel daycare, to the liquor store (piss off meditation), to the doctor’s office, etc. The joke is: soon we’ll get there. We’ll get to normal, to fixed, to calm, to The Balanced Life, to whatever fantasy of stability we imagine is waiting for us if only we can get the last of these fucking emails written. Just out of reach, but not out of sight. Except, of course, it’s both out of reach and out of sight. That’s what the mind does. Carrot on a stick, carrot on a stick, come on buddy you can do it. We all know how deluded this is, and yet we all fall into it anyway.
This Monday, not only will we practice acceptance – yes, this here right now is your actual life – we will also explore the possibility that your mind is completely bonkers and out of sync with reality. We will explore this in a fun way, that is, making good-natured fun of the mind. The spiritual teacher Jean Klein used to say the mind is like a fool who, after a great ballet performance, staggers on stage, pushes the dancers to one side, and bows dramatically. Reality is dancing, the mind takes credit afterwards. Hilarious!