A Thirty Second Tea Meditation, Better Than Looking Back

It’s a pretty recent thing.  More often than ever, I find myself thinking of the past, reliving certain incidents.  I imagine it has something to do with getting older, maybe just that as we age we have more memories, but I’m not really sure.

I don’t like thinking about my past, even the good times are not something I want to relive, not how I want to spend my time.

But it happens, there I am meditating or sewing, and a memory pops into my mind and I find myself absorbed in it.  Sometimes I even narrate it, as if it were a story worth repeating.  When I catch myself doing this, I ask myself, so what is the point of this story?  Does it have any meaning or relevance to my life now, is it somehow useful for me or someone else?

Mostly I just try to let it go.

Today when I got into my studio, my mind was all over the place. At one point I thought of two  friends who I hadn’t seen in years, by my own choice.  I’ll google their names, I thought, look them up on facebook.

I was actually just about to do it when out of the corner of my eye, I saw the teabag I had hung on the gate spinning in the wind.  I watched it for a while, hypnotized, mesmerized by its movement.

Then, I look down at my iPhone in my hand and realized I had lost all interest in knowing what my old friends were doing with their lives.

I have no intention of getting in touch with them, so how could it possibly matter to me. I let them go  a long time ago for a reason.  Anyway, I had work to do.

Instead I went outside and took a video of the teabag, spinning like a Whirling Dervish, lulling me back to the present moment.

I hope it does the same for you.