Small, Good Things

05.22.2020 SMALL, GOOD THINGS Big questions abound these days. When big problems loom, it can be helpful to focus on the small. We can take refuge in the little rituals that comprise our days, and also imbue them with meaning. I am reminded of the Raymond Carver short story, “A Small, Good Thing.” In the story, a couple face a parent’s worst nightmare: the death of a child. To compound their misery, they are badgered by a local baker who has fulfilled their order for a birthday cake for the child who passed. He pesters the couple about picking it up, and the story builds to a confrontation in the bakery, and then, when the baker hears of their sorrow, a reconciliation. The baker offers them cinnamon rolls and suggests they eat. “Eating is a small, good thing in a time like this,” he tells them. In the face of crisis, a small, good thing can be the act that reconnects us to ourselves. As part of my new role at Lion’s Roar, I’ve been spending time in our archive of Buddhist wisdom, where I came across these small practices from the great teacher of mindfulness, Thich Nhat Hanh. One might not guess that the act of drinking a glass of orange juice or simply taking a walk could be a form of meditation, but they can be. When we focus on the present moment, we can touch real life through a sip of juice, or a single step on a hike. This Weekend Reader offers three “small, good things” that can be helpful to us as we confront daily uncertainties. —Ross Nervig, audience engagement editor, Lion’s Roar

Taking A Walk Thich Nhat Hanh shares how to turn the everyday act of walking into a meditation. You might like to take two steps and breathe in and say, I have arrived, I have arrived. And when you breathe out, you take another two steps and say silently, I am home, I am home. Our true home is really in the here and in the now. Because only in the here and the now can we touch life. As the Buddha said, life is available only in the here and the now, so going back to the present moment is going home. That is why you take one step or two steps and you awaken to the fact that you have arrived. You have arrived in the present moment.

Lighting Incense Thich Nhat Hanh shares how to make even the smallest gestures, like lighting incense, an act of mindfulness. When you light incense you think that the purpose of lighting incense is to have the incense pervading the Buddha’s home. But lighting the incense is just for lighting the incense. You pick up a stick of incense mindfully and you enjoy that, because it is by itself an act of meditation. During the time you pick up the stick of incense you are mindful, you are concentrated, you are real, because your body and your mind are together. And the stick of incense is real. When you strike a match, you do the same thing. During the time you strike a match, you only strike a match. You don’t do anything else. You don’t think of other things. You are perfectly mindful of striking a match. You are concentrated on it, and you enjoy the act of lighting the incense.

Drinking Orange Juice Thich Nhat Hanh shares how to turn your morning glass of juice into a little ritual of mindfulness. To really enjoy a glass of orange juice, you have to be there one hundred percent mind and body together. If you are there, mind and body firmly established in the present moment, then a glass of orange juice will become a real thing for you. You are real; therefore, the juice is real. And there life is real. Life exists. Life is deep during the time you drink your orange juice.

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