(picture selected only because this is the closest I've come to a "Zen Moment" in quite a long time)
We expect it to be the way we want it to be; and the way we want it to be is the way we call right. In other words, my way. My way is what you have before you have children. There is no right way to parent; there is only a right-now way.
Karen Maezen Miller, in hand wash cold: care instructions for an ordinary life
Miller is a sensei at the Hazy Moon Zen Center in Los Angeles, and the author of another book sitting on my shelves (but not yet read): Momma Zen. In hand wash cold, Miller describes her journey through broken relationships, personal disatisfaction, and self-absorption toward Zen and falling in love with "an ordinary life". The book is organized into three sections: the laundry, the dishes, and the garden. As Miller says in her book "life is the laundry", "life is dishes", and "life is a garden".
The book mixes personal confessions with remarkably wise insights, and Miller illustrates how we could all fall in love with the life that we already have. A beautiful reflection on Zen for those of us busy with householding duties.
Oh if you have Momma Zen sitting on the shelf unread, the right time will come when you pick it up and fall in love. That's what happened to me. I bought it but only read it almost 3 years later, when I needed it, as Karen says. Almost done with Hand Wash Cold, I'm a slow reader and to learn as much as I can from her wisdom, but also LOVE that book too.
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