The Cure for Anything

When life is sweet say thank you and celebrate. And when life is bitter say thank you and grow.

That’s most excellent advice. Lately I’ve been celebrating and growing.  Above all, I have been saying thank you. Every. Single. Day. Thank you for the blessings. Thank you for the lessons.

“I have faced many challenges in my life. Some, a little more recent than those which have gone before them.

Nevertheless, with each new day—and, no matter how I may feel—I smile in the biggest and most special sort of ways. For you see, these days, I am smiling because I am grateful—grateful to simply greet and embrace each and every single one of my days.

And though, my mobility may be just a bit wobbly at times…like the bird, my wings are formed each time I leap from ‘life’s cliff’ and always before my feet hit the ground.

I take great comfort in this, most gentle ‘knowing’—this understanding, that no matter what, I’ll be, always, okay.” -Ray Bradbury

I just read an article about Ray Bradbury. I had no idea he was a Zen Buddhist. I remember finding one of my older brother’s Ray Bradbury books when I was about 8 or 9. I was desperate for something to read. Anything. I’d already read every single thing in the house including the dictionary, the phone book, and the deed to my parents house that went back to the time of the Indians. I decided to read whatever this stupid book was, because it was better than nothing. In my mind it had to be a stupid book because it was my big brother’s book. I can’t say for certain, but I think it was Farenheit 451 that I read first. I had an expansive vocabulary for an 8 year-old, but I’m sure some of the book went over my head at the time.  When I read it again as an adult, I was shocked at the subtleties that I’d missed the first time around. Life experiences can teach you things that an extensive vocabulary cannot. 

“I’m a Zen Buddhist if I would describe myself. I don’t think about what I do. I do it. That’s Buddhism. I jump off the cliff and build my wings on the way down.”- Ray Bradbury