Discipline

Today is another day when the sun will shine, the temperature will continue to rise to a place that feels more familiar for springtime. We are zeroing in at 50 degrees fahrenheit and blossoms of daffodils and poppies are appearing. Today is Thursday.

What does discipline or obedience mean for human beings? For one thing - it is a quality that is necessary perhaps, for learning basic skills to live in the modern world. No only in terms of acquiring the abilities to read, to write, to understand why numbers may be important in our daily lives, but it is important in other ways. For example, sitting in silence, being still, not allowing chatter to come into a space - to simply "be.".

The ability to focus on how to be (versus how to do) is an entirely different capacity. On the surface, being is nothing. On the other hand, doing brings so much.

Human beings love to do. The doing delivers so much more. Or so it seems. It certainly allows one to identify things that manifest into objects, shared experiences, accomplishments that can be recognized by others, and the list goes on. Striving is a big part of doing.

Being delivers quite a lot, too. It is that aspect of living that delivers joy, satisfaction, a good sense of reaching that place one could call "enough.". At the point of recognizing when, and what, is enough - something else has a chance to be recognized and refined by each one. Sometimes there is enough work, enough play, enough travel, enough money, enough time, enough friends, enough experiences, just enough. Many never recognize when enough is enough. But once one reaches that place, some kind of settling happens. That settling is actually the doorway to another kind of doing...unique to just you.

Then the challenge is to find another who can play with having had enough for themselves. It may look easy to play, but really - it takes a a lot of practice. First alone, in the discipline of practice, then the discipline of stopping and returning when life signals it is time to pause, then the discipline of getting to a place of recognition - "Oh, this is enough for me." And what happens? Things shift.

What does the shift mean? It can mean many things - and it is helpful at this point to return to being.

Upon return to this place, that appears on the outside to be nothing, but is something - well, it actually opens many more doors. But to get to this ability to shift- doing/being, doing/being, doing/being - requires discipline. This is because in order to grow - both in material and non-material ways - requires discipline.

Without it, one can be deluded into feeling as though they are "free" - but that kind of freedom is not only addictive, it is often inconsiderate, selfish, and damaging to others. To be truly free, one needs to develop the discipline to be able to dance with another; then dance with many others, and all the while - keep focus on what really matters: love, beauty, joy.