Namaste

This morning when I got to the recovery center, I went inside, took off my hat, scarf and coat, and started to think about my work for the day. I sometimes get started early because of the time it affords me for contemplation. I make lists for what I hope to achieve that day, in the coming week and in the near future.

Suddenly from outside, the sound of someone yelling interrupted my peaceful contemplation. I stepped outside my office door, turned and opened the door to the outside. Someone was pacing up and down the parking lot while on their cell phone violently screaming at the person on the other end, accusing them of being a pot head, threatening them, using profanity.

I paused for a moment waiting for the opportunity to interject. None came. My instinct was to raise my voice asking, ‘Who do you think you are, screaming into the phone, pacing up and down the parking lot, flailing your arms, disrupting the quiet of the morning?’… I paused. 

My next thought was, ‘How do I get this person to realize that their behavior is making them sick.’ The pacing, screaming, profanities no matter who they were aimed at, were making and keeping them sick. I waited another minute or two then asked the person in the parking lot to come in and talk to me. He screamed at me. The wrath that was aimed at the person on the phone was now aimed at me.

I stood there and said nothing. A moment later the person was leaving the parking lot. As they left I said, “I love you brother. When you are ready to talk you know where I’ll be.” 

Later that day I was going to Tai Chi class. As I entered the room, I looked to my left. Across the lobby was the person who was screaming in the parking lot. I nodded and went in. We went through the routine, and when the group was over, the leader ended the group with this quote:

“We are shaped by our thoughts.

We become what we think.

When the mind is pure,

Joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”

I scribbled it on to a blank piece of paper, then folded it up. As I left the room I walked past the person who had been screaming in the parking lot who was sitting at a dining room table. I quietly laid the paper beside him and kept walking. Later he came back to where I was working and thanked me.

Beyond Serendipity?

Namaste