Hi blog,
We're almost to the end of our mini-epic series of Zenocity! (I don't think that's a word actually...) Just one more after this. I'm already feeling a little nostalgic. What a funny looking word that is...
Top Ten Zen
Andrew and Nick have compiled a list of Zen-like
philosophies comprised firstly of a quote, an interpretation of said quote, and
finally a story to drive their point home. This list can aid you in doing
anything from completing a 100-mile race to surviving cancer, or obtaining any
goal you set your mind to.
Here are the previous posts for those who missed them:
- The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
- Body follows mind
- The faster you hurry, the slower you go
- You are not bound by your past
- Life is only available in the here and now
- You are the author of every next moment
- Your worst enemy lies within
- Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them
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| Free sledding |
"Find joy in every little thing."
The Survivor’s Take: When facing hard times, it pays to find things
to make you laugh and smile. Problems don’t seem as heavy when you take them
on with a grin and a giggle.
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The Runner’s Take: Smile, look up and enjoy the scenery. Stomp on
the flowers if they provide you better grip on the climb, but don’t forget to
smell them!
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Survivor’s Tales: Anyone who has been in the hospital will tell
you it’s a pretty boring place most of the time. (It’s generally not a good
thing when it gets interesting though.) So to pass the time, and also to keep
my spirits up, I played practical jokes. My favorite involved a spoon, some
Jell-O, and a very pale nurse. I was too weak to eat the Jell-O myself at the
time, and after my mom missed my mouth once with the spoon, I got an idea. We
set up, giggling like mad, and put on our game faces as we called in the
nurse. Neither of us would specify exactly what happened, only that we
“Needed the nurse to get in here right away.” A couple minutes later the
nurse showed up and froze as she saw me clutching my eye, little bits of red
Jell-O oozing from between my fingers. “She got me in the eye,” I groaned.
The nurse turned white as a sheet and quickly spun around, muttering
something about getting the doctor. Luckily she had a good enough sense of
humor to laugh with us after we stopped her. Finding funny things to cheer
you up, whether it’s something as simple as reading a joke book or
something as elaborate as a harmless prank (harmless being key), will help
get you through the tough times if you remember to laugh as often as
possible.
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Mountain Tales: I
was coming off of the backside of a notoriously difficult mountain pass. The
descent was steep and covered in long patches of dirty snow. I watched as the
runner ahead of me plodded down the top of a long snow chute. The runner
suddenly slipped and started sliding off down the chute at great speed. I was
worried and opened my mouth to yell out to him. But then all of a sudden, he
recovered just before he would have careened into the sharp rocks below. He
picked himself up and kept moving as if he’d meant to do it all along.
Anxiously, I moved closer to the snow chute, plopped my butt down as I’d
watched the runner before me do and swoooshh!! I was off lightning fast!
Whatever material my shorts were made out of was much faster on snow than the
runner before me. I was horrified but I smiled and laughed. The laughter was
partially out of fear, partially from the adrenaline, and partially from the
fun of getting to sled in the Pyrenees for free! For that brief moment, the
competition and the race faded away. I shook off the snow from my shoes and
smiled back up at the snow chute, happy to be alive.
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| How it probably looked to the nurse |
Andrew would like to point out that he actually mentioned his story and talked about using humor as a tool to get through cancer treatments in a previous series of his, Awareness Week. The specific post was: Awareness Week: Surviving Cancer, where he mentioned five different methods that could be used to get through the rough treatments and dark times that come along with cancer and the after-effects.
Of course, just because we are sharing our own extreme
examples does not mean that these philosophies are all strictly for extreme
situations. We share these because they can be used by anyone in the proper
situations and we invite you, dear reader, to take these helpful tips into the
world to use as you see fit. Feel free to hoard them or share them with others.
It is both of our hope that these do some good somewhere, and so we wish you
luck in your journey of a thousand Zen-filled steps.
Nick Hollon
Andrew Bundy
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