Ahhhhh, nothing like holiday traveling to bring out the best
behavior that humanity has to offer. Ironically,
in the midst of collective societal New Years resolutions I found myself at LAX
trying to navigate my way from the American Airlines terminal to the United
terminal.
I have been at airports all over the world, I have traveled
places where I cannot speak the language and I must say, navigating LAX was harder than most of the places I have been.
Within 2 minutes at LAX I felt bewildered. There were no maps to explain the layout of
the airport and few airline personnel to be found. Finally, I found someone to point me in the
right direction, a fifteen-minute walk to another terminal where I would have
to go through security again.
While
standing in the security line, which seemed pointless as I had gone through
security to get on my first flight, I stood behind a man screaming at his wife
on a cell phone. His energy was so
negative that I found myself cringing and energetically closing off while
physically moving away. Everyone in the
vicinity grew quite. As I observed the
scene unfolding, the man went from screaming at his wife to yelling at the
security personnel, and something shifted in my mind. I noticed my frustration, tiredness, and discomfort
with the situation. I stopped (nirodhah)
my inner dialogue, judgment and feelings.
I took a moment in the security line to breath in light and breath out
darkness, and I kept breathing until clarity and well being filled my
mind.
In a matter of a minute, one man's rage turned my personal
agitation and suffering (duhkha) into presence and compassion. As it turned out, the man had lost his wife
somewhere in the airport and had all her carry on luggage. Two carry on bags are the limit, so security wouldn't
let him through to his flight and to meet his wife who had somehow found her
way to the gate. Granted his reaction wasn't fantastic but hey, how would you
feel?
One of my teacher's Jo Leffingwell says to use everything as
a reminder to come back to the practice.
So if you are sitting in meditation and you hear a practitioner
obnoxiously clearing their throat you should thank them in your mind for
reminding you to be present. The things
that bother you are invitations to get a little closer to all the uncomfortable
parts of yourself that you try so hard to push away. This allows you to integrate the shadow side
of yourself with the one that you put out on display for the world to see.
Coincidentally, a similar situation unfolded a few days earlier
while I was practicing asana in the garage (aka my yoga studio) in my parents'
home in Florida. My adorable 2-year-old
niece Shea came in to play in my yoga studio ;)
Her mother Megan looked at me and playfully chimed, "I hope you
weren't trying to meditate!" Sincerely, it was no problem and Shea's
presence was completely welcome. She
played and I practiced. Sure, it's a lot
more enjoyable to have a little girl’s chatter or the sound of crashing waves
to remind you to be present with your self but we cannot always control our
environments. Nor should we! We can plan for the best, but life always
throws you curve balls. Sometimes those
uninvited guests are exactly what you need to face yourself honestly and to
grow.
Pema Chödrön explains this concept perfectly. She writes, " I saw a cartoon that
describes this. A head of iceberg
lettuce is sitting in a garden saying, 'Oh no, how did I get in this vegetable
garden again? I wanted to be a wildflower!' The caption reads, Oscar is born again as a head
of iceberg lettuce in order to overcome his fear of being eaten." Ha ha ha.
As I am continually working on making friends with my fears
and my humanness I have come to the following conclusion...
Traveling around the holidays will always provide a plethora of experiences
that will allow me to see all of my dirt and situations that force me to pull
out all of my tools in the hopes that I will handle the stress a bit more
gracefully.
All that being said, I am very much looking forward to next
year's holiday travel time! See you at
LAX!
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