Lately I have been doing a lot of thinking and a lot of reading about following your dharma. Maybe because I think that some of my anxiety, stress, depression, panic - whatever you want to call it - is caused by my being "stuck". I am discovering that not only can't I follow my dharma while I'm stuck, but I am having a hard time even finding out what my dharma is because I'm so damn stuck.
I do totally appreciate watching and being around people who are following their own dharma. You can see the sparkle in their eye, the joy they exude because they are doing something they are really meant to do.
Last night we dropped off the boy at youth group and realized we had nothing planned for supper and it as 5:30 and the three of us were hungry. About two or three months ago I had seen a write up in the local paper for a Greek style restaurant that had opened up. An itty bitty, puny restaurant that only had 3 stools at the counter, but still - Greek! I drive by the place almost every day and for the last couple of weeks have been craving a falafel. Then I remembered that I had read that they make baklava and my craving was the final incentive we needed to go to the restaurant for supper.
Small it was, but it had a certain charm - probably because the chef seemed so happy. I had my falafel and he mixed together all the ingredients as we waited. Fresh! That makes such a difference in the taste you know.
And, for us it was fun to see how much he enjoyed watching us eat. I had told him that baklava was my favourite dessert and I did a little happy dance while waiting for him to serve it for us. I put my nose in it and took a good, long smell. Oh... it had such a fabulous smell. I was about to dive in when I heard the chef say "No, hold on. Don't eat it until I can see your face. I want to see how much you like it." Then he moved in front of me to watch my dessert experience. I know, it sounds kind of weird, but trust me in the situation it was happening in - it was completely appropriate. I am pretty sure that he was as excited to watch us enjoy his food as we were excited to eat it.
It was, for me, the perfect example of someone who is following his dharma. He already has a successful restaurant running in town, and now he's cooking the kind of food he really wants to cook. You can taste the secret ingredient - love - as he's following his passion.
It makes me start to feel some of the passion in my tummy - along with all those butterflies!
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