Kelsang Machig

I choose to be happy. saying these words stop tension escalating, we buy ourselves time to think. 6/9/22

I hope is that may well be that little special yesterday, if you didn’t, couldn’t not pay attention about, so for weeks now we’ve been bombarded with reminded with valentine’s day special. You couldn’t miss it. Every where you look, big red heart shaped balloons, cards, you name it. All them declare a message don’t forget to show your loved one you care.

This is the time of the year when we get plenty of advices by what food for Xmas dinner, how to cook it, and how to set a beautiful table. So I’m thinking perhaps it might be more useful to get some advice on how to deal with certain people sitting around that table in Xmas day.

How you feeling today? I should say, how you thinking? Because there’s a strong connection. Our thoughts can actually define our experiences in life. We wake up on morning grumpy with negative anxious thoughts, we don’t have a good day, do we? Like looking through lenses that make everything seems worse. They’re not worse, by the way, they just looked that way. Because the next day, for more upbeat, looking through lenses of positivity, the troubles we had yesterday seems disappear. Nothings changed externally, the only changes being our perception, driven by thoughts, ideas, beliefs.

We're all wonderful, everyone of us. Now we don't heard that too often, do we? You see, we all have the ability to feel love, compassion, kindness, not just for those who're close to us, but for all others. But our limited sense of self thinks, no, that's not possible, while buddha says, we can. We actually do experiences. When we hear of tragedies of lives lost in floods or other disasters, we immediately feel compassion, don't we? It's just there, spontaneous caring.

And how are you all today, this is something we say all the time, isn’t? But it can trip out the tongue without much thought. But I really think, in these days, I say this with much sincerity than ever before. Perhaps that’s because we’re all on the same boat, living from day to day with uncertainty. And there is a special bond that we going through ourselves together. There’s instinctive feeling of wanting to help one another.

Not means to like what’s happening, but this mind allows us to stay peaceful from unable to handle situation. Respond difficulties with negative thoughts, it never help, and often makes it worse. It’s like glasses makes view of reality distorted, and challenges seems greater.

I was lucky enough to get my covid vaccination last week, it was a very interesting experience. First to witness such an amazing feel of our organisation. It was the SCC in Glasgow, so can you imaging, so many people there, help it to go smoothly all with smily faces, of course wearing masks. But we're now learnt smile with eyes and ear, I felt really cherished and cared for. Now when I left I felt less vulnerable. I had this strong feeling that it's all OK now. Governor's advice is to not change our behaviour, I know this. So what is going on with me? I realise although we still have to be super cautious, but this is definitely a big step in the right direction. This is all we want, isn't it? Just the feeling of moving forward.

Trails of pines along the pavements, folk hobbling along slippery roads balancing a big tree. Yes, it's a that time when Christmas tree had to go.