How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order - willed, faked and so brought into being: it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time: it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living. Each day is the same, so you remember the series afterward as a blurred and powerful pattern.
How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.
You could be even more precise and say: How we spend our moments is how we spend our days ... then automatically it follows, how we spend our days ...
Each moment builds upon and becomes the pattern, the fabric of our lives.
Dillard gives a nod to the need for a schedule, a way to manage and use the fleeting nature of time when struggling to be disciplined, especially when no one else in the world cares about one person's impulse to be creative - at writing or anything else. It's all up to you.
Living by a schedule - whether imposed on you by a someone else as a workday, or created by yourself - is a way to grab hold of life and get things done. A schedule speaks of the need to accomplish, to create and build, to nurture and grow ... and it is a fortress against the forces of sloth and confusion and the weight and inertia of depression. I suppose you could say that this regard for the moment and the unfolding of days is at the heart of living life fully.
Another way of regarding, managing and cherishing the moments of our lives over time, is to pay attention.
That means paying attention to what's happening in each moment - both outside and inside of ourselves. And the word for that of course, is mindfulness. Or, being mindful.
But paying attention in the moment, although it is a crucial step, is only part of being mindful. Real mindfulness has this moral connotation of
knowing that one is thinking, saying or doing something that is going to produce some happiness now and in the future - or will result in suffering now and in
the future.
Mindfulness is not just bare attention. Real mindfulness is built upon and rests on an understanding of, and faith in the law of cause and effect. Will this thought, word or deed of mine produce more happiness to me and all those who are affected by me? Or more suffering?
And the deeper the understanding, the stronger the faith and the better the ability to withhold from thinking negative things, saying negative things and
doing negative things.
But perhaps the most important thing to understand on the path of moments, days and lives of mindfulness, is the crucial need to develop an attitude of not being judgemental of our thoughts, words and deeds. Judgement causes negativity to scuttle into hiding and mask itself with rationalizations and justifications, shame and guilt.
The effort and attention we pay in each moment helps us to KNOW that we are thinking, saying and doing negative things - things that cause more suffering to myself and others. If we know it, and accept it, we can make an intention to think, speak and do differently without getting stuck or derailed by judgements.
Like the demands of living by a schedule, being mindful requires discipline and attention. It also requires perseverance and self-acceptance ...
Tall orders to be sure, but the rewards - as the western world is discovering all in a rush - are sublime.
By the way, I called this a humble reflection. It's to remind myself that when it comes to mot things, and especially mindfulness, I've got a lot to be humble about.
But perhaps the most important thing to understand on the path of moments, days and lives of mindfulness, is the crucial need to develop an attitude of not being judgemental of our thoughts, words and deeds. Judgement causes negativity to scuttle into hiding and mask itself with rationalizations and justifications, shame and guilt.
The effort and attention we pay in each moment helps us to KNOW that we are thinking, saying and doing negative things - things that cause more suffering to myself and others. If we know it, and accept it, we can make an intention to think, speak and do differently without getting stuck or derailed by judgements.
Like the demands of living by a schedule, being mindful requires discipline and attention. It also requires perseverance and self-acceptance ...
Tall orders to be sure, but the rewards - as the western world is discovering all in a rush - are sublime.
By the way, I called this a humble reflection. It's to remind myself that when it comes to mot things, and especially mindfulness, I've got a lot to be humble about.
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