Moonflower Moments

With all of the noise that surrounds us and threatens to take away a peaceful mindset, I have found this book to be invaluable.  It allows the reader to embrace what is most important in their lives and focus on the here and now and what we can and cannot control.  Burkeman starts with the concept that we are all finite human beings with the impossible task of trying to gain control over our lives.   

He asks the reader to consider that they are in a one person kayak, moving through the river of time towards an inevitable yet unpredictable death.  You are at the mercy of the current and all that you can do is to stay alert, steering as best you can while reacting  as wisely and gracefully  as possible to whatever happens from minute to minute.  You might rather be drifting along in a super yacht with a programmed route, and a leather swivel chair on a bridge thinking that you would be in control if you had this advantage.  But all that you can really do is try to control your own kayak. 

While most self-improvement books are written to help readers gain control over their lives  and  then become the master of their domains, quite simply this is a fallacy.  What Burkeman proposes is that we decide to take part of the time that we have each day to do something that is meaningful in our lives and that requires  the surrender of a sense of control.  This is an act of faith and means facing the truth that you are in the kayak, not the superyacht.  He challenges us to figure out one thing that we can accomplish each day.  It might be spending time with family and friends, or meditating.

The important thing is to give your full attention to whatever it is that you feel is valuable to you.  You may not do it again, or you could find that you develop an emerging practice of writing or meditating.  Whatever this is, you bring it into reality as you keep steering your kayak.  As an overachiever and list-making person, I have excelled in many things during the time in my kayak.  I have to-do lists that I make each evening and start each day trying to accomplish every item on the list.  Instead, Burkeman suggests making a list at the end of the day of everything that we accomplished during that day.    

Meditations for Mortals has really changed the way that I look at life and has helped me to become more focused on the things that are important to me.  I now filter out the noise generated by daily news on social media channels as I become more productive during the day.  I hope that you will see how it might enhance your life as you paddle your kayak through the days ahead.