Reframing...A Little to the Left?

The week spent laboring on windows several hundred feet off solid ground comes to an end. My tired body hurts all over again like a spiteful, mocking re-run of my first days as a window cleaner, though this time older and dusty. On the plus side, carrying two hundred pounds of lead ingots up flights of stairs to the building's roof to use as counterweights costs significantly less than 24hr. Fitness. In fact they pay me to work out.

Lemons, lemonade, Meadowlark.

Those non-Harlem Globetrotter fans may pick up frame of reference right here.

I am adjusting my perceptions to realign with necessities, rather than preferences. Call it a new preference. By using my day's labors to "work out", I feel better about myself and my earning a good wage. By seeing middle of the night diaper changing sessions as another opportunity to be with my little girl, I have fun. It's like this great Tich Nat Han exercise; while washing dishes, pots, and pans in the sink, imagine you're bathing the Buddha. The same care, respect, reverence, and dignity that comes with an experience like that is available at any level of service. It's just a matter of re framing your perception. No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem.

That is harder to do than it sounds. Believe me, I fail to keep out my indignation at the mere prospect of dishes, but now, somehow, it is in service to something greater. And that is a real freedom.

Recently I spoke at length with a friend curious of my spiritual back ground, but we ended up talking about his religious beliefs. They are very strong and upheld by an experience he once had while in college. He was transformed during an act of prayer and, as he says it, "came to the lord." This experience guides him to this day, and he is in his sixties. It proves to him, without a shadow of a doubt that the Bible is sourced from the word of God. I listened respectfully.

Amidst our discussion were obvious shields proffered to ward off any attacks of prostelization. We remained respectful of the slowly revealed morass of differences and began to retreat. At once he quoted scriptures providing dialogue that self-referentially insists it is anathema to questions. How can you question that, much less prove it? That, to me, is a discussion ender.

But I was most moved by my friend's conviction and the resulting behavior it has carved from his life. He is a good man. Generous, kind, forgiving, earnest, and hard working. He is a father, a husband, and now caring for an ailing mother in law. I see nothing in this man's behavior to suggest that his spiritual life is at all counter to what I believe is the correct way to live. Quite the contrary.

So we're really talking about the same things, just giving them different frames. A little more to the left.