Over the Father’s Day weekend I tried to BE all that I read about last week. I tried to approach things with more of an openmind, positive, relaxed attitude. I tried to just allow things to be what they are without trying to label them or make them fit into my preconceived boxes. I wanted to let the spirit of the Tao fill me up and alter my approach on life.
I’m not sure how successful I was but I gave it a sincere try and considering it hadn’t even been a week since I started this process I feel like I did a pretty good job. There were a couple of specific things that I’d like to mention.
Friday morning I had just finished getting ready for work and I was walking from the bedroom out to get my purse and head out the door when I heard water running. My first thought was that my dog was peeing on something but he’s a little guy so I quickly dismissed that and moved on to did I leave a faucet running? No, they appear to be turned off so I follow the sound to the source, and there it is!
The little hose that runs from the utility room up to the swamp cooler on the roof is laying in the middle of the floor gushing water full blast all over the floor!! I leaped into action, jumped the gate across the door (it keeps the dog out but the cat can go use her facilities) and grabbed the hose. In my head if I held it up in the air the water would stop coming out. That obviously didn’t work, so for about a second I was some sort of fountain statue holding the hose in the air as water gurgled out of it. Then I thought if I cover it, but of course all that did was spray the water all around. Finally I reached rational thought again and ran over to the valve to shut the water to this hose off. DUH!
So that was an exciting, adrenaline packed few seconds to get me started on my day. My initial reaction was, “Shit, another damn problem with the house. It seems like it never ends, we just get one thing fixed and something else goes wrong. WTF! Will it never end?”. So I was grumbling as I walked out the door but then quickly forgot all about it once I got to work.
Later that evening as I was telling my husband what had happened I remembered the Tao and that I should try to view this from a different perspective. On Tuesday of last week I learned,
“In the painting, why is Lao-tse smiling? After all, that vinegar that represents life must certainly have an unpleasant taste...but through working in harmony with life’s circumstances, Taoist understanding changes...negative into something positive. ...sourness and bitterness come from the interfering and unappreciative mind. Life itself, when understood and utilized for what it is, is sweet. That is the message of The Vinegar Tasters.” The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Huff
I remembered the bit about changing something negative into something positive so I started rethinking things. So, the hose came loose and poured some water all over the floor but the good news is that it happened 5 min BEFORE I left the house instead of 5 min AFTER. That’s a biggie because as it was, it only left a smallish puddle of water that was easily wiped up. If it had happened just after leaving it would have dumped gallons and gallons of water before I got home from work (3-4 gallons of water per hour x 9 hours = 27-36 gallons of water). It would have been a catastrophe of epic proportions!
More good news is that my husband had just gotten back from a trip the day before so he was home to get up on the roof and reconnect the hose. Cuz no way am I gettin up on dat roof! And finally, up until two months ago turning off the water to that hose was a needle valve that had to be turned, turned, and turned before the water would turn off. Just two months ago a plumber friend of mine replaced our water heater and some of the old bubble gum fixes that had been added over the years. He replaced that needle valve with a T valve that turns off with a simple quarter turn. So once I finally came to my senses and realized that I needed to turn off the water it was really easy to do.
I started to see this as an opportunity to be grateful. It also made me look back at other things that have happened in the past that I thought were horrible but now as I looked at it thru a different perspective I realize that they happened at the perfect time or in the perfect way. Perhaps these have all been learning opportunities that I’ve been missing. There are bound to be problems come up in life but rather than looking at them negatively I can start looking at them positively. God has blessed me to have had these problems at just the right time or in just the right way that has made them easier to deal with. I am also grateful to have my husband and friends to help with these problems. The idea that problems can be a blessing is a little bit of an epiphany for me.
The other thing that happened was on Saturday. We had planned to go to a small outdoor concert Sat night but as the day progressed the weather was cool and just not what you would want for an outdoor concert. My husband suggested that we change our plans and do something else. I can be quite set on plans once they’re made but the water hose incident Friday had the Tao in the forefront of my mind so I decided to let things happen naturally and not force it. Going to the concert that night would have been fighting the weather/nature. We went ahead and did what my husband had suggested and had a wonderful night.
This isn’t great progress and it took awhile for the Tao way of thinking to even penetrate my brain but it’s a start. A well known Lao-tse quote applies here, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
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