Seeing Your Life Clearly
I washed the dishes last night even though I felt sluggish and not in the mood. I thought I had scrubbed all the food off this one bowl I was cooking with, but I hadn’t. I often make the mistake of only checking the inside of the bowl. I was in too much of a rush to get the dishes done. It wasn’t a huge deal to notice the brown sticky substance the next morning, except that the ants also noticed my lazy work. Now that the ants were back I had to scrub down the whole kitchen after work.
I miscalculated the cleanliness of the bowl, which made me wonder if there had been other errors lately that I had not noticed. I’m not saying that you must be perfect and refuse to daydream and have 100% focus on whatever you do. However it would have only taken an extra two seconds to check the other side of the bowl had I not been so lazy. My laziness cost me an hour of relaxing after work because of all the cleaning I had to do to stop the ants from searching for more food left by the lazy dish washer.
What does washing dishes have to do with seeing life clearly?
Your perspective defines how clear and enjoyable life is to you. When you can clear out the fog of thoughts and be in the moment, life can have an easy quality to it that makes your existence joyful.
When I was washing the dishes, I was more worried about a report at work that had me chasing my thoughts than focusing on the bowl I was cleaning. This small mental lapse cost me more of my relaxed time than I would have thought was possible.
By noticing that my thoughts were more consumed with my job than washing dishes, I realized that I will have to make an effort to improve my ability to enjoy simple tasks.
