Demanding: Material Fatigue

Post-holiday de-shopping,
Having been through
The bargain sale wars,
As return deadlines loom
The decision pressure mounts,

What works?
And what to keep?
Connecting up the electronics,
And seeing
The results;

How to bring practice
To this?
Definitely an occasion
To reflect upon
Impermanence, unsatisfactoryness and not-self,

As none of these contraptions
Will last,
Some will not meet
The inflated expectations,
And in the end, none are me or mine;

Or so I said to myself,
When feeling frustrated
With all the hassles
Of grappling with the
New technologies;

Besides, it’s just
Another set of skills to master
And a good work out
For the brain,
Which has been somewhat underused lately.

Anyhow, I think now
A rest is in order
From this constant patter,
Before resuming consideration of the matter.

Delving: Effort

Facing the inner firestorm
Has brought about
A most interesting result:
A new determination,
A goal directed effort,

Which, although
It waxes and wanes,
As all new skills do
Before they’re well established,

Consists of
A persistence, an insistence
Upon happiness,
Regardless of the outer conditions,

A striving towards
Joy and delight,
Contentment and peacefulness
In relation to all that is,

The great struggle
With the inner tempest,
Makes the outer world
Seem so much smaller,
And ultimately
Too weak to intrude
Upon the inner quietude;

Perhaps I begin to see
What may be gained
By exerting effort
In this direction,
The vital connection
Between the inner
And outer domains,
How they can intersect and interact
In such a useful way,
With the right amount and quality of effort.

Delusion: Bountiful Breakfast

For the past week
I’ve been eating eggs
Almost every day,
Because the expiry date
Was looming;

Then, I was always craving
Something else,
As if my mind resented
The imposition
Of this perfectly reasonable repast;

Now the eggs are gone,
And I’m back to eating
Jamaican patties,
And I’ve started
Craving eggs!

How ridiculous it is
To be always craving
Something I don’t have,
And begrudging
What’s right in front of me!

But for now it seems
All I can do
Is observe this foolishness
And eat my breakfast
With all the gratitude I can muster,

That I woke up to
A freezer that worked
And a toaster oven that worked
And therefore am privileged to enjoy
What I have,

For as long as
I have it!
Lest I should later regret
Such unwise thoughts.