Had a very quiet night last night. Took a nap as soon as I got home from work trying to escape from a pretty serious case of the blahs. Woke around 7:30, made some dinner, and listened to a Neil Young CD. Then I watched “Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind” on DVD. Caught an episode of “The Simpsons” with Hangul subtitles (I wonder how much gets lost in translation?) then it was back to bed and the peace one finds in sleep.

This morning as I pondered what might be of interest to post on my blog I realized that after just two months in Korea I am beginning to feel a disconnect with the day-to-day politics in my homeland. I imagine this is just a temporary phenomenon (at least I hope so). Right now, I’m feeling somewhat like Mr. Young sang “well all those headlines they just bore me now, I’m deep inside myself, but I’ll get out somehow…”

Anyway, I decided to read some blogs from other expats in Korea this morning. I’m curious about Korea, it’s politics and its people, so I think I may start sharing some of what’s going on here with y’all on a more regular basis. No time this morning, as work beckons.

I did come across a blog called “Big Hominid’s Hairy Chasms”, which I have occasionally read but not as regularly as he deserves. Excellent writer and some pretty deep insights into the world we share as Americans living in the ROK. I invite you to go have a read.

His Good Friday post really resonated with me for some reason. And I thought I might share some of the wisdom of his words with you this morning:

Since I and a few people I know are all going through a painful period, each of us for various reasons, I thought it might be good to write about “putting it down.”

In Zen Buddhism, the maxim is “don’t make anything.” Your mind is so often the source of your troubles. You choose to face the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune either negatively or positively. Often, at the beginning of a troublesome period in your life, it is difficult to realize how responsible you are for your own choices. It’s easier to shift blame to your surroundings. But ultimately, the healthiest route out of the forest of troubles is to start by looking in a mirror. Behold what’s actually there; don’t needlessly manufacture problems for yourself and others.

I’m not a scriptural literalist, so I don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead. But the story of the passion and resurrection nevertheless holds power for me, because it’s a story about a man who put everything down, including his own life, for the sake of love. How many of us can claim to be ready and willing to do something like that? Not many, I suspect.

Most of us, like little children, cling desperately to our cherished notions, preconceptions, and delusions, unwilling to countenance truth and change. We face the world with fear, and create clever rationales for our spiritual cowardice. In a crisis period, this instinct intensifies. The ego swells to enormous size– everything is about getting hurt, everything is about me, me, me. The world doesn’t understand my pain, and only I am in pain!

I’ve felt like that before. I’ve looked out at a street full of people and wondered why they didn’t see my agony, which was plain as day to me. The world kept right on turning, resisting my egocentric interpretation of it.

And there’s a lesson in that. Life is change, ceaseless change. All we have is this moment. If we try to keep the past with us, we merely create more suffering for ourselves. If we try to hold on to our anger, or our hurt, or whatever it is we’re feeling, we poison ourselves.

It’s better simply to put it all down.

People need time to do this. It can’t be done immediately. If, for example, you’ve just experienced a family tragedy, you can’t be expected to act like the Taoist writer Chuang-tzu, banging on pots and celebrating your wife’s death. No; most of us need time to mourn, grieve, recover. But after that period, we should be ready and willing to move on with our lives, to follow the constant flow of the river.

You can’t see the new life of Easter if you’re always looking backward. Easter points simultaneously to the present and to the future, to hope and happiness and fulfillment. Think positively. Embrace goodness where you find it. Actively seek the good, don’t wait passively for it.

Good advice for us all and certainly words to live by. I feel better already.