Abandon Hope!

As I am writing this, it is snowing again! Although I’m done with tax paperwork, I’m still processing an annoying insurance issue. The garage door broke and I can’t get my car out. Maybe it’s a blessing, because now I can’t see the Check Engine Light. I still am not finding time to write. When I’m this grumpy, I don’t want sunshiny saccharine consolation. I do like “get real” advice.

Pema Chodron writes that “…abandoning hope is an affirmation, the beginning of the beginning. You could even put ‘Abandon hope’ on your refrigerator door instead of more conventional aspirations like ‘Every day in every way I’m getting better and better.’ She also writes that “Giving up hope is encouragement to stick with yourself, to make friends with yourself, to not run away from yourself, to return to the bare bones, no matter what is going on.”

In other words, you deal with the reality of yourself and your situation. It’s the only way to get from here to there. Thich Nhat Hanh writes that “Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible.” Maybe I’ll find some time to write soon. I’ll stay alive to opportunities and in the meantime, enjoy bits of “get real” wit and wisdom like these from Jane Austen:

“Nothing ever fatigues me, but doing what I do not like.”

“And pictures of perfection, as you know, make me sick and wicked.”

“Do not give way to useless alarm; though it is right to be prepared for the worst, there is no occasion to look on it as certain.”

“Every moment has its pleasures and its hope.”

“I will not say that your mulberry trees are dead; but I am afraid they are not alive.”

When you’re grumpy, what helps? Do you have a favorite quote, from Jane or anyone else?

Elena