A Book A Week – Momma Zen

Kim, this one’s all your fault. I listened to an audio excerpt of Karen’s new book (Hand Wash Cold which I have on preorder.) and then I saw Kim’s thoughts on Momma Zen on her blog and decided I had to have it.

Momma Zen took me a day to read. I couldn’t put it down and there were so many excerpts I underlined that I don’t even know where to begin. Since I want to meditate more and be more self-aware this year, there were a lot of lessons here.

Here are some excerpts I liked:

In actuality, there is never any such thing as solid ground, but strapped securely inside our heads, where we live most of the time, things seem pretty predictable and safe. We think we are the captain of the ship. We are prepared to steer, to give orders, and to reach our intended destination just the way we want to. How we fear our navigational errors! How earnestly we aim! When you go into labor, you see that you are not the captain of the ship. You are the ship. There is no captain. There are only waves.

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I am devoted to the schedule. I am devoted to the routine to maintain physical and mental health. For my daughter, yes, but above all for me. The structure lends security. The focus gives me sanity. The predictability begets, in a paradoxical way, freedom.

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The point is not that we lose our cool, the point is how quickly we find it again.

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You don't have to work so hard at this. You don't have to do so much. You don't have to endeavor to be natural, normal, and good. It happens by itself when you least expect it. If you're confused about what you should be doing, this this. Stop what you are doing. Take care of what is in front of you, when it is in front of you, and the confusion will pass. This is called the effort of no effort. No effort is what powers the universe.

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Happy matters most of all. And here's the surprise ending. You don't have to wait for happiness, because there's no time but now to be happy. You don't have to go somewhere else, because there's no place but here to find it. You don't have to do something else, because there's nothing more to it. You don't have to get something else, because everything you already have is enough. You just have to be happy.

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Amen.