February is the longest month, regardless of the number of days it might contain. By February, winter has gone on long enough, darkness has held sway long enough, and our forced hiatus from so much of what we love has lasted long enough. Oh sure, winter has its share of boisterous holidays, gorgeous snowfalls, and welcome solitude. By February, though, I’m more than ready for a change.
By February, many of the good dietary habits that were so much easier to maintain in warmer months have fallen by the wayside. My recurring “winter hunger” took hold of me sometime in mid-January, and within a couple of ravenous weeks the likelihood that I’d choose the healthy option had almost become nil. Yes, and the cumulative effect of daylight savings time having robbed me of my evening run has begun to feel oppressive. My energy level has plummeted, and a certain inertia has set in. It’s become so much easier to let a stack of clothing build up atop the dresser, or a pile of papers on the desk, or a list of undone tasks within the mind.
Rather than being failure, awareness of our distraction is very much a success.
Perhaps a perfect practitioner of mindfulness can roll with this contraction of daylight, this subsidence of energy levels, and this darkening mood to just as consistently find joy within these cold gray days as any other. After all, happiness is really just a matter of keeping our desires and expectations in accord with what reality allows. I have to admit, though, that all too often I have early autumn expectations for these dreary winter days. It’s high time, then, that I embrace a mindful March!
Mindfulness involves the intention to be fully present for what is. It involves giving full attention to every moment of our lives. But if full attention is our goal, it would seem that the failure of distraction would be lurking around every corner! Rather than being failure, though, awareness of our distraction is very much a success. Paradoxically, when we become aware of our struggle with the circumstances of life – when we see clearly that our expectations are not in accord with what is in this present moment – then we’re better positioned to accept the reality that exists. And when we simply accept the reality of this moment it becomes easier to see the beauty that is always here to be experienced – in the most ordinary of circumstances, and in the most difficult ones as well.
So, I hereby declare these next thirty-one days to be Mindful March! In recognition that my mindfulness practice is imperfect and in need of rejuvenation, I will take this month to increase my awareness of how my own unskillful thought processes keep me from fully appreciating every moment that I’m alive. Instead of bringing a September frame of mind to a February reality, I’ll bring a March frame of mind to a March reality. I’ll bring a this-moment frame of mind to a this-moment reality. Certainly I won’t do it perfectly. I’ll surely falter along the way. And when I do I’ll make awareness of that very imperfection part of the perfection of what is.
Copyright 2020 by Mark Robert Frank
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