I don’t follow sports avidly, but Kobe Bryant was and is a household name – and his untimely death and that of his daughter’s and the other passengers on that ill-fated helicopter ride – are cruel reminders of life’s capricious nature.
I recently downloaded the app Calm. This app guides you in meditation, offers an array of sleep-inducing bedtime stories, mellow music, breathing exercises and more – all geared for personal growth, inner peace, better sleep and less anxiety.
It’s so hard to still the mind and just breathe – especially in this super-charged, hyped-up environment that we inhabit. The Calm app narrators encourage us to think of our breath as our anchor. When thoughts begin to intrude say, “ Thank you, but not now.”
One recent daily meditation was centered on the idea of mandalas – those beautifully intricate sand designs created by monks. Mandalas are geometric works of art made up of thousands of deposits of colored sand particles – crafted into concentric curls and shapes.
Immediately upon completion – after hours and hours of concentrated work – the monks simply and completely destroy the mandalas. They then take the sand to a river to be carried off by the water.
Why such an abrupt and irreversible ending?
The creation is a meditation on itself, emphasizing the transient nature of all things. The creation and destruction show that time is fleeting and we should focus our awareness on the moment.
All that is certain is unpredictability. The only constant is change. It’s human nature that we value something even more when it’s taken away. We mourn for what Kobe and his daughter could have brought to this world had their lives not been snuffed out so tragically and so prematurely.
I’m choosing to end with something one of my favorite advice columnists – Carolyn Hax – said recently: “You can’t buy out of the human condition.”
Keep Preserving Your Bloom,
Iris Ruth Pastor