Monday, October 8, 2007

Making plans

It's usually the same on Monday morning. I sit and ponder the necessity of the return to Los Angeles for the work week. I wonder what the traffic will be like. I wonder what the temperature will be like when we get there. I make lists of those things that need to be accomplished in the course of the week.

Today is no exception. I have that catalogue text to finish. I have a new "Art of Outrage" segment to submit... October 10 is the deadline for both. Ellie and I have an artists' group on Tuesday. And then Thursday and Friday I have to be back down south, since I have two teaching days at Cal State Fullerton. It seems like a lot...

The trick, of course, is to be where I am now, at 8AM Pacific time in Laguna Beach, ready to get down to the gym in a few minutes...

But there, see, already I think ahead. Who was it said that life is what happens when you're busy planning something else? John Lennon? And there's that joke about giving God something to laugh about... just make plans.

The Buddhist teaching? Simple, as usual: Be here now. Breathe. But even though I "know" better, I persist in living so much of my life in the future, consuming energy in useless preparation for events that will never turn out exactly as I expect them to anyway.

How about you?

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