What am I doing here?

The following is from an email newsletter sent by Jeff Cannon of Simple Truth.

Last week I asked myself this very question as my family sat around the Thanksgiving table.

Did we all really travel hundreds and thousands of miles to eat turkey and stuffing, just to finish it off with a slice of pumpkin pie?

Or did we fly down to renew the bonds of kinship and community that we have spent decades to build, bonds between people who love and trust each other to the ends of the earth and beyond?

What am I doing here?

It is a question I learned to ask myself, not just from time to time, but always. Every time I enter a room, every time I open a door, every time I meet a new person I ask myself.

“What am I doing here?”

It is a lesson I was taught by Sensei Chodo at the New York Zen Center for Compassionate Care. It is a process of reflection that I constantly ask myself throughout my day.

What am I doing here?

At the Thanksgiving table I was stirred to ask everyone to join hands. I led a short Meditation to link each of us to the people both present and far away, both those living and no longer with us. It was a wonderful moment of reflection for all of us. It caused each of us to contemplate the moment at hand in terms of our family and the bond we shared.

What are we all doing here?

It is something none of us should just leave for the holidays and family get-togethers. It is a question each of us should ask ourselves every moment of every day.

What am I doing here?

If approached with a few calming breaths, it becomes a question that will cause you to pause, to reflect, and maybe, just maybe, to reset your course.

Try it in the middle of a meeting, a date, or while simply waking up in the morning.

What am I doing here?

The answer may surprise you.

It rarely fails to do so for me.

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