would you like my box of chaos?

Another highlight from the terrific Omega Institute gathering last week, where Sharon Salzberg led our morning meditations.

She noted the pressure that some of us feel to elevate everything to “gift level” – divorce as a gift, illness as a gift, loss as a gift.  This is a lot of pressure! Salzberg advised that we don’t always have to go that far. Just work on seeing circumstances as a given – they don’t have to be a gift.

On a related note, she mentioned that sometimes a package IS presented as a gift, when in fact it is not.

Here, have this box of chaos, someone will offer. And sometimes it is so pretty, all wrapped up in sparkly paper with a big bow on top. It looks so lovely and inviting!

We’ve all opened the chaos box at times – sometimes knowingly, sometimes not. Alas, no matter how great the wrapping, it’s still chaos on the inside.

You know what’s great? Turns out, just because someone offers the box of chaos, doesn’t mean we have to accept it.  We’re allowed to say, no thank you, I already have plenty.

Dear Honeybees, I wish us courage to handle all that is given, even when it’s not a gift.

And the next time someone asks, would you like my box of chaos? I hope we say, kindly and clearly,

“No.”