commonplacing: befriending

"Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already."

I read this last night and it caught me. My journal is full of notes-to-self and to-do lists that chart a course away from who I am today in search of some other, better, holier-than-I-am, more successful, more creative, more everything me. But this quote invites me to accept an inconsistent, imperfect, petty, wacky, stressed out self. Love her, as is, today.

I'm approaching meditation in an effort to heal my body. Eve, the nurse practitioner who is coaching me through my postpartum rehabilitation, recommended two books that she thought may teach me how to relax. Was it clear to her that healing my body (I am So Frustrated with my broken body) required another kind of healing within? I'm grateful to her for the suggestion. It was beyond my imagination but now it feels obvious and real.

Thank you.

Chodron, Pema. Comfortable with uncertainty: 108 teachings. Boston: Shambhala. 2002. p. 11.