This blog is about my escapades in trying to achieve mindfulness.
Now, I have read many books on mindfulness. I practice tai chi and meditate. Yet, I am still in search of achieving mindfulness. I am not talking about the mindfulness experience that one gets by having a best selling novel that ends up being made into a mediocre movie where you get to live in Italy, India and then Bali. That would be a mindfulness with royalties. Also, I am not going to sell all my possessions, leave my family and mediate under a tree for hours on hours and then later start my own religion. That would be Buddha did; however, it does sound more like a a deadbeat dad who tried to justify abandoning his family by claiming to be in search of enlightenment.
Look, I am a father living in a single detached home in U.S. suburbia with demands from work and the family. I face the same issues that many of you face, such as: 1) trying to raise semi-functional kids that will not still be living at home at the age of 26 years old; 2) paying car loans and the mortgage to ensure that our cars are not repossessed in the middle of the night and the house is not foreclosed on by some soulless financial institution; 3) maintaining a perfectly manicured lawn that is the envy of the neighborhood; 4) trying to stay employed and earn a descent income so I can retire with some dignity instead of living out of a cardboard box and dumpster diving for food; and 5) keeping my wife happy.
With all of these obligation, where do I have the time to achieve mindfulness. It is a tall task indeed, but I am willing to take this journey with nothing more than a mental compass, some nice yoga pants and a thermos of coffee, decaf preferably. In all seriousness, I want to take this journey because it will make me a better person, my family better off and the world just a little happier. Well, perhaps making the whole world happier is a bit too much, but the Buddhists that we are all interconnected; therefore, may happiness is yours.
So I hope you join me and share me your experiences. In the end, I hope I make you a little happier and you make me a little happier and together we achieve mindfulness.
