Willow Is Not Real

Willow is a dog. When I first met Willow she was introduced to me as a house pet that needed to be penned in during a meeting because she was so excitable. Her keeper gave the visitors two options: 1. have her in the bedroom where she would bark and bark and bark. 2. Let her come in where she would jump up on us and run around in circles. Willow is an Australian Shepperd and can only relax after herding you like a sheep. We chose the bark-free option since we were about to have a meeting and needed to hear each other. And besides, we all needed to sit in the same room together so we were easy to herd. My experience of her was that she was an uncontrollable, scraggly looking, utterly annoying ... dog.

I have never considered myself a dog person. I was a cat person. I was annoyed at the dog before I even got to experience its excitable nature mostly because I identified myself as a cat person ... and definitely NOT a dog person.

As it turned out my relationship with Willow started to change. To make a long story short I ended up volunteering to help take care of Willow on a part time basis as Willow's owner was in need of some support. After spending several days a week with Willow something eerie started to happen. I was beginning to act like a dog person. I was picking up poop, talking to the dog like a person, looking up dog training resources and last but not least .... I was starting to feel some real affection towards her. Now when I go a few days without seeing Willow I start to miss her. I have become a dog person. I am not sure what happened to me. I was cat person you know!

So what does any of this have to do with mindfulness? Well if you watch how you identify yourself as something ... a friend, lover, single person, whatever, you will also notice something else. Things change. The identities we label ourselves and others with are not fixed. When we fix a label on ourselves we often try to maintain it as real and permanent. Upon closer examination things are freer than that and if you watch ... you might just notice yourself becoming something you never thought you could be ... and thank goodness for that freedom.

Now in a Can

Now In a Can

After having a fresh experience of the present moment I sometimes find myself feeling more free and relaxed. However, even as I try to write about it, sometimes the label gets used so much that we forget how fresh it can be. We can go from experiencing the world and our lives in a fresh open way with a mind that is attuned to the present moment, to a mind that labels our experience as "now" and leaves it at that. That is kind of like putting it in a can. Canned now is not really fresh. It's packaged in a label or concept. How do we go about avoiding putting our experience into a can? Well I think it has to do with having some kind of contemplative practice. Meditation practice is the most immediate way to keep the experience of nowness fresh. We need some time and space to see through the speed of concepts and labels and just be with what is. So if your now feels like it's a packaged product with a brand name label on it, then that might be a sign that a little bit of practice would help.

Does this sound like an advertisement? Now in a can, it's not so fresh.