The essence of life is that it’s challenging.  Sometimes it is sweet, and sometimes it is bitter.
Sometimes your body tenses, and sometimes it relaxes or opens. 
Sometimes you have a headache, and sometimes you are 100% healthy. 
From an awakened perspective, trying to tie up all the loose ends and
finally get it together is death, because it involves rejecting a lot of your basic experience. 
There is something aggressive about that approach to life,
trying to flatten out all the rough spots and imperfections into a nice smooth ride.  —

Pema Chodron.

Well.  Damn. 

Pema Chodron says that finally getting it together is death.  So, why am I juggling 10,000 things and killing myself to keep them from falling?  I don’t want to die.

She also says that the essence of life is that’s it’s challenging.  Ah.  I have a very lively life then.  She closes with, “There is something aggressive about that approach to life, trying to flatten out all the rough spots and imperfections into a nice smooth ride.”

Hmmmm.  I think I deserve a smooth ride.  I don’t think the human condition should be one of struggles and challenges.  I don’t think having one’s ducks in a row is death.  Respectfully, Miss Pema, I disagree.

The essence of life is the quiet moments.  The big ones – holding your newborn for the first time or looking into your partner’s eyes when you say I love you.  The small ones – those all-too-brief moments on the zafu with the Tibetan prayer beads in hand where you can watch your thoughts like giant soap bubbles pop and dissipate or while sitting on the seashore admiring the enormity of all creation.  The essence of life is the cup of coffee on the deck at sunrise in summertime.  Sandaled feet, but sweatered arms – to keep the morning dew from chilling.

Sometimes life is sweet.  And sometimes it is bitter.  Further, sometimes it is Nirvana, and sometimes it is Hades.  I don’t think The Creator breathed life into us to be constantly nauseated on a roller coaster of sweet and bitter.  Afraid. 

No, we are told again and again by all the great sages, Pema aside, Be ye not afraid.

The bitter will be there, yes that’s true.  It’s our job to rise above it and smooth it out.  To minimize the discord, to work against injustice, to celebrate peace, birthdays, and small fresh-sprouted seedlings.  Life is a teeming of beginnings.  Yes, and endings.  But the endings too should be quiet and expansive — an ushering into the next.

When the body tenses, we lose our equanimity and forget our purpose by thrusting ourselves into fight or flight.  When we relax, open up, we gain connection with the human condition and aren’t fighting against it, but working to maximize potential.

Smooth out those imperfections.  Work for peace.  Drink heavily from the chalice of life.  We are here now and that is a great miracle and a tantalizing mystery.  Enjoy yourself.  It’s later than you think.  Assert yourself.  You are a reborn star.