Long and Winding Road

​The Beatles song of the same title once again played in my head as I sat in the sunshine.  I closed my eyes and focused on the sounds of the water feature and let the lyrics fade away.
 
I had been reading one of my favourite books, ‘Nothing Special – Living Zen’ by Charlotte Joko Beck when the song first made an appearance in my mind.
 
As I listened to the babbling water the connection between the two came to me.  Our practice is like a long and winding road.  We start it, perhaps thinking it will lead us to bigger and better things in our lives.  Then the more we sit in meditation and become present within the awareness of our everyday activities, we realise our practice is about simply being who we are – connecting with our true essence. 
 
This part of us knows we are here for the full experience, to take life as it comes.  This part of us doesn’t label our experiences as ‘good and bad,’ ‘want and don’t want.’  It knows the road is a long and winding one with it’s bumps, it’s hairpin bends, it’s inclines – some steeper than others – and the inevitable pot-hole or two.  It is not their appearance along the road that is the issue, it is how we negotiate them.  We can get caught up in unhelpful thoughts, push on another mile or so with their driving themes of ‘what ifs’, blame and judgments – creating unnecessary hills for ourselves to climb in the process.  Or we can become aware of the pressure of our footfall on the road, the temperature of the air on our faces, lean into the bend as we take in our surroundings – the sights, the sounds, the smells, any taste the air may have left on our lips, or not.  Experience the reality of the moment.
 
When we hit that bump in the road, feel all it stirs up in us.  Don’t push away any pain, sadness or confusion.  Pause at the side of the road, breathe the breath of life, and feel, feel and feel some more – its shape, depth, movement.  Don’t ‘pick yourself up and dust yourself off’ without acknowledging all that your body needs to express.  There is a place for being positive in our lives but not when it is being used as a form of aversion – we all have habitual reactions to avoiding unpleasantness.  Be the observer of the feeling/emotion.  If it needs to cry, let it cry.  If it needs to scream, let it scream.  We don’t hold onto a splinter in our finger in resistance to the pain its removal may bring, we instinctively know its removal is for the best.  Emotions/feelings are no different.  If we deal with them in the present, they can leave, immediately assigned to the past, with no pull to be revisited or need to be stored to be experienced again.
 
In time, these bumps in the road will be felt less, have less drama attached to them, leaving the road ahead to be experienced step by step, moment by moment.
 
In the song, the long and winding road always leads the singer back to the same door.  In our practice the long and winding road also leads us to the same door.  The one clearly marked ‘the present moment’, with its reality and its infinite joy.