The other day, on my morning walk, I noticed that the tree at the end of my street was barer than it was a few days ago.
Fall is approaching. Leaves were strewn around the base of the tree, lying this way and that, some being gently rustled by the soft wind.
It occurred to me in that moment that trees don’t mind what happens.
Every year, they lose all their clothing. Not just some of their clothing, all of it. All their leaves drop to the ground over the course of several weeks. And the trees don’t mind at all.
When considering how attached to things we as humans can be, I’d think that losing all my clothing every few months would be just one of the many challenges of being a tree.
Plus, trees have to stand outside, in the bone-numbing cold and in the sweltering heat. They take the wind, and the downpour, the lightning and the snow. And they don’t mind at all.
In a way, we’re all subject to the same things trees are.
We lose things: clothing, people, money, jobs, stuff. And we’re not usually as graceful about it as trees are. Some of us find it hard to let go.
And we’re all subject to the seasons of life: cold winds blow, the heat gets turned on, rainy seasons come, and lightning and thunder can make their visitations too.
Here’s a powerful teaching from J. Krishnamurti:
“This is my secret.
I don’t mind what happens.”
Wow.
I’m working on that one, because I still mind what happens.
I mind when things don’t go the way I wanted them to.
I mind when people say things I don’t like.
I mind when I’m having a conversation with someone and they absolutely don’t see things my way.
I still mind what happens. And sometimes I mind a lot. A whole lot.
So my lesson from the tree–in silent surrender–was to learn, on a deeper level, to not mind what happens; to disentangle myself from the web of attachments…
attachments to people
attachments to outcomes
attachments to having it my way
attachments to the status quo.
There’s a peace that settles in when we don’t mind what happens. There’s a stillness, a calm center, that can’t be rocked by the events and happenings of the outside world. From this place, it’s easier to not mind what happens.
When we’re thinking too much, it’s easy to mind what happens. The ego is only too anxious to tell us how much we don’t like what’s going on, and how much we wish it would be some other way.
The issue is, it’s not some other way. It is what it is, and the sooner we come to peace with the right now moment, whatever it looks like, the better life becomes, in every way.
Trees don’t mind what happens.
Do you?
Tags: inspiration, inspirational messages, motivation, Spiritual Life Coaching, wisdom of life, words of inspiration
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