Anecdote About a Fly

Several times today, there was a small fly near food I planned to eat, a drink, or a personal item. I heard words of hate toward the little insect in my head.

Then another thought arose.

It is just one part of existence. What humans have called, in English, a fruit fly. I am the one judging it, naming it a fly, and putting a negative feeling onto it.

It just is.

Like the air around me—I don’t name it or judge it.

This made me laugh.

How true.

Everything is simply existing where it is, including me.

Bad feelings come when I label something and put something onto it. I color it.

In Healing Alchemy: Hatha Yoga & BodyMind Therapy, there was an explanation of the world that touched me:

Here is a garden, and everything is in it. There is grass, flowers, weeds, bees, ants, etc. And I’m trying to pick and choose what should be in the garden.

Everything belongs just as it is.

So, I’m not satisfied, and there is a gap between reality and my desire. I suffer as much as there is a gap.

So here is the practice:

Practice saying “yes” to everything.

Yes!