In life, it seems everything is a practice, and no matter what decision or choice we are faced with the practice part is the constant:
- It is a practice to stay and a practice to go when it comes to my career.
- It is a practice to be a parent, but the practice also to find a different way without children.
- It is a practice to love someone, and also a practice to live with them every day.
- It is a practice to work with a client, but it is a practice to not have any clients.
- It is a practice to have a family and to have family obligations, and a practice to have a family and not be close.
We are definitely in a ‘searching’ phase of our lives. Some of it might be indecision or misdirection, but a big part of it is a balance. We want to achieve the ultimate level of success by giving ourselves both time and dollars. It has seemed like pushing away from all that we know and graduating to a level of thinking that is not widely supported is both good and bad, but either way, any decision we make is a practice.
Our day to day practice has always put experience first instead of responsibility. We often see responsibility as a roadblock to creativity and one that stifles our opportunity to grow, but we have found recently it does not have to be the case. Responsibility can actually act as a set of boundary lines to help push us forward in a directed manner…almost establishing ground rules.
Perhaps a bit esoteric, but in the months and years to come this will be honed in, refined and ultimately a perfected daily practice; we will master our ability to ‘practice’ over time.
Photo taken at Ren Zhi Ji Mount Baldy. Kurt stands near the infamous Roshi.
Kurt practices Zen Buddhism and maintains at least 2 sesshins a year at the Ithaca Zen Center.
