The Beautiful Life
I've been reading a wonderful little book called The Beautiful Life: Ten New Commandments, Because Life Could Be Better by Simon Parke. (Click on the title to be taken to my other blog where you can read more from this book.) If you are attracted to Buddhist thought, this book will resonate with you. If not, you probably will think it is a load of twaddle. Personally, I love it. The author was a priest in the Church of England for 20 years, has written for radio and TV, and now works in a supermarket. How Zen is that!
If you're wrestling with meeting your goals, ponder this:
"There is nothing wrong with instant in itself. Instant can be good. But as a rule of thumb, if it is instant, it probably doesn't matter very much. Rome was not built in a day. The ocean liner cannot turn on a sixpence. And the human being is both bigger and more complex than both.
"There's nothing wrong with results either. Results can be good. But they are never a promise, and never the reason for proceeding. In a society that worships the god of immediate and demonstrable outcomes, results have iconic status. But to seek results above all else is to step on a treadmill of insecure and misplaced striving, in which contortions are more evident than health. You are worth more than that. There are things you can work towards, but nothing you need strive for.
"Nothing truly valuable can ever be made into a target."
Now if that doesn't hit you where it counts you need to go back and read it again!
I'm so glad I ran across this book in my meanderings through the library today. (And to think I was actually looking for sex memoirs to add to a sordid little display I made yesterday--I've already had to top it up three times and will have to change it soon as all the raunchy books are gone now! Pervy folk!)