Today and tonight is very rainy. On my way to Buddhist class in Center City, I looked up at the tall buildings through the rain and saw people in one of the upper floors sitting around at a meeting! Lol Anyone else probably would have found it not important or thought nothing of it but I just loved seeing it. I saw three men in what appeared to be business suits.  There were probably more who I couldn’t see. None of the men I saw have hair. 

It looked important. 

Lol  

This isn’t the building, these are different, similar ones.

I love hearing and seeing people in the distance. And I love the sounds of laughter and talking and construction work, it just provokes a feeling of connection and Oneness in me, I love the life all around. 

The meeting in the building I saw through the window brought back a memory of a day in 9th grade when a girl in class had some speaker thing and either it called people or she hooked it up to her phone and called random people and we all heard it through the speaker. She did not know any of the people she called, it was just random numbers. A man answered one of the calls and he sounded distraught, almost panicked and said he’ll have to call her back, he was in an important meeting at City Hall. She kept telling him it’s important to talk to her right now. He did not realize it was a high school girl just messing around. Lol All the kids were laughing and so was the teacher. 

His meeting probably looked a little like the one I briefly witnessed way up on that top floor tonight. 

In class tonight, the monk reminded us to remember that everything is impermanent, the seasons, relationships, our problems, everything we love, our physical traits, our life….so cherish all that we have but be prepared to lose it. Depending upon how we think about it, this can be inspiring or gloomy. Remember to bask in the beauty of all we have and not put too much into problems or pain or negativity, it will all end soon enough.

I found the lecture and meditation to be inspiring and soothing and sad. I thought of my coworker, Diane, who died in February. I was very close to her and I don’t always cope with her death well. And I thought of those I will likely lose later, animals and humans. It was soothing to hear our teacher remind us that loss is just part of life, just the way it goes and it doesn’t have to destroy us. He used an analogy of staying at a luxurious hotel for a few days and having to leave it. We don’t break down over having to leave the beautiful room and bath and breakfast in bed and king sized bed and incredible view and room service and all because we knew all along it would end. It was never ours to keep. We were prepared to have it end. It’s like our life now. It was never ours to keep, the relationships we have aren’t meant to last forever. The very nature of life is change. If we just prepare ourself for it to end, like the way we know vacations end, we will be great. We are travelers just passing through life. 

We were also reminded that the most important things are love, wisdom, and inner peace, not material things like money and jewelry.

The monk used another analogy of receiving a big expensive diamond then soon after, being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Would we even care about the diamond now next to something like that? We can have expensive things, pretty things, and still be miserable or still be sick, and still die. And we can have a terminal illness, experience a devastating loss, be very old, and still be happy and at peace.

It’s all about our attitude and what we focus on. 

When we focus on the good and focus on our breath for a few minutes, we can experience inner calmness. When we meditate upon the concept of death and loss, it can at first seem gloomy, negative, uncomfortable, terrible, but eventually it can bring us to peace and lessen our anxiety about it.  

It was a good class! Very helpful!

Last night was my little sister’s 19th b-day so my family took her bowling! It was a lot of fun! I got 2nd place! My mom got the lowest score and my dad and sister got the same score.

Here are a couple pictures:

The people before us left this score sheet.

Lol

I’m the only one of us usually who likes to get my picture taken. Lol 

This is my boys and me. They are just the sweetest things! ❤

Emmy is the little daddy on my shoulder and Woody is his baby looking up at me. They get so jealous of each other and both want all the attention. Lol It's so cute!!

Here is a sweet song relevant to the topic of impermanence and appreciating the good while accepting the bad and the uncertainty.

“You’ll never know which way a day is gonna take you
there’s always some surprise that comes along to shake you
you’ll never see exactly where the road will lead you
and when it comes to love you gamble when you need to
you’ll maybe break your heart on one unlucky throw
but then again, you’ll never know”

You’ll Never Know – Ringo Starr – mobile

You’ll Never Know – desktop

Much love to you!! ❤

😀

xoxo Kim