| 1. Impermanence | | | | And all of this is happening to a "me." That's the real |
| We try desperately to live a life of light and love, but | | | | problem. We have constructed an ego in our minds |
| the truth is; nothing seems to last these days, as if | | | | that has taken over our entire spiritual being. Going to |
| we are sitting around waiting for that other shoe to | | | | church helps a little, or spiritual exercises - it takes |
| drop. Ask any empty nester; the kids are gone | | | | our mind off things for a while, but not for long. The |
| before they can say, "Whoa, where did the happy | | | | "me" in us will soon raise its ugly head and begin |
| years go? Now what?" | | | | worrying again, if not about dying; about it's after life. |
| Careers are becoming slippery slopes as well, with | | | | And "me" will surely enslave itself to some ritual or |
| mergers and acquisitions playing around with real lives | | | | belief to insure its immortality. |
| in the face of global competition. Everything is | | | | This "me" becomes the most important thing in our |
| changing rapidly, and at times, it becomes | | | | lives, leaving little energy left over to genuinely care |
| overwhelming. We are changing; those around us are | | | | about others. We might feign helping others, if it |
| changing; the world is changing, and it seems there is | | | | helps insure our own ticket to heaven, but when |
| little we can rely on these days; we can't even rely | | | | pushes come to shoves, it's a Herculean feat to |
| on our bathroom mirror - surely it must be lying to us | | | | authentically love our noisy neighbors! Just underneath |
| as well. | | | | the surface of our holiness lie the creepy seven |
| Looking to our doctors for solace doesn't help much | | | | deadly sins (lust, gluttony, greed, laziness, anger, |
| either, they keep warning us about . . . things, and | | | | envy, and pride) all connected to our "me's." And if |
| we must remain ever more vigilant every year. And | | | | we can't admit this, then we are surely caught in the |
| the drugs they prescribe do more damage than our | | | | seventh! "Me" wants things, craves things, and finds |
| diseases! Worry, worry, worry. When will it ever end? | | | | ways to get them. |
| Even when we are happy, we wonder how long the | | | | 3. Discontent |
| happiness will last, because we know that everything | | | | A combination of a "me" that craves for things, as |
| around us is in fact changing, and the changes are | | | | well as the reality of a changing world where it's |
| rarely for the better. | | | | difficult to hang on to the things that our "me" does |
| Thank God, for TV, the occasional love affair, | | | | happen to achieve, results in our constant discontent. |
| celebrity gossip, or a new challenge that takes our | | | | We put on a good face and insist we are happy, but |
| minds off all of this, but these, alas, change as well, | | | | in those private moments, when we are honest with |
| as if a gremlin lived deep inside magically making us | | | | ourselves, we aren't happy. We can't even sleep! |
| weary of any diversion we discover. And that little | | | | Nights are not easy for us, because then we are |
| persistent niggle just won't go away, that feeling we | | | | alone with our "me's." |
| face all the time in our moments of reflection, usually | | | | So discontent is there for us; it's undeniable, and it's a |
| late at night, when we are all alone. | | | | real deal. But there is hope! There is a way out. And |
| 2. "Me." | | | | the way out is on the other side of "me. |