Ouch!

As I walk along a safe, sandy beach, ouch!, my toe, I stubbed it on a rock. Angry, blaming, cursing, “the bastards”, ‘they’ made me do it … the ‘devas’ are always there to remind me, sometimes painfully, not to let in too many thoughts of self importance. I like to think I have a self-regulating system, that I can imagine these ‘guardian entities’ into existence. I like to think I can handle them even when they’re quite rough. They need to be, to protect me from …
Imagining them into a real existence is not much different to imagining ideas into real existence and then watching them grow until they’re quite independent of imagination. Whenever that happens a birth take place, a habit forms, a repair, a resolve is made. For that we should feel gratitude.
By not appreciating how much we gain from experiences, even stubbing our toe, we can’t see the almost alchemical process of self change. Without gratitude we can’t create a new reality. We have to make do with the one imposed on us. By accepting ‘the way things are’ there can be no moving on, no improvements, no aiming at the future. If we don’t encourage growth in ourselves (and in others) it just won’t happen. There will be no exhilarating bursts just the slow old changes, whimpering along from mistake to mistake. We’ll be constantly clobbered by the ‘little people’ for not acknowledging them. They’ll scream with mischievous delight whenever they spot ingratitude in us.