I indulged in Elizabeth Berg’s ‘A Year of Pleasures’ today. Some background: The main character Betta, recently lost her husband. In the dialogue which follows, Betta is speaking with her friend Maddy, (they’re newly reunited old pals), having learned that Maddy’s eleven year old daughter died diving into the shallow end of a pool. When referring to the pain, Betta asserts,
‘So you just…blocked it out.’
Maddy replies,
‘Oh, God, no. No. Of course not. You can’t to that, even if you want to. But what I’m talking about is…well, I think that deep sorrow can make for a kind of …unloosening. You can get reoriented in a really important way. Losing Molly reminded me of how beautiful life is. I know it’s counterintuitive, but it’s true. The horrible stuff? I think it’s all a necessary part of the great pageantry.’
I then flipped over to ‘The Untethered Soul,’
(a most indulgent weekend of books, silk jammies, solitude, lounging with livestock, (my weekend away postponed to another time), great snacks and spontaneous napping….okay, and some work)
….and read,
‘Likewise, when your mind starts telling you what you have to do to make everything inside okay, don’t buy into what it’s telling you. The truth is, everything will be okay as soon as you are okay with everything. And that’s the only time everything will be okay.’
Worthy food for thought thinks I. Ponder that a spell, or rather, just sit and don’t think.
Try it. Damn!
We are not our mind.
BB Webb