Just For Today...

Ah, a few minutes to sit down and gather my thoughts.  It's been too many days since I've done that!

I've been thinking a lot about the precepts this weekend - perhaps because I had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at work on Friday and I think I "broke" every one of them! I was projecting into the future, I was very angry, I was worried, I was thinking some very unkind thoughts and not feeling particularly grateful.  I wasn't applying myself to my spiritual work very well either on Friday afternoon and maybe for several days before that.  Maybe if I had sat down sooner to gather my thoughts, they wouldn't have been so all over the place......

Sometimes I think that if Usui Sensei had given us only one precept, Just For Today, we'd still have a pretty good foundation on which to build our spiritual lives and around which to structure even the most mundane tasks that we face each day. 

When I reflect on those three little words, Just For Today, I feel empowered, confident - I can do most anything for 24 hours (not even, because I try to spend at least 7 of those sleeping!).  I'm also reminded that I can't go back and undo yesterday and, as much as I hope that it does, I really have no guarantee that tomorrow is coming, so this day, the one that is unfolding right under my nose, is all I have. 

Does it really matter if one of my superiors was incredibly rude to me? It certainly felt like it at the time and I really wish that I had responded differently than I did but I can learn from the experience and think about a more light and life-giving response for next time, but the experience need not define me and it certainly need not take up any more space in my head than it already has.  If it keeps happening, I may need to revisit the wisdom of staying in that situation, but that is a decision for another moment in time, not this one.

At this moment in time, 8:34 pm on Sunday, September 13, 2009, I am sitting at my desk, typing a blog entry.  My dogs, Smokey and Shadow, are curled up on the floor beside me.  My partner is watching TV downstairs.  I can hear a cricket chirping outside.  All is well and that is all that matters.

What are your thoughts on "Just For Today"? 

Namaste,
Janet