revisiting the onion

Lately I've been humbled yet again by the build-up of my assumptions and illusions. They can be so subtle that I don't notice their presence until I'm thinking through a situation and it hits me that the container in which I've put my thoughts is a fabrication of my own anxieties and fears.

A daily mindfulness practice helps me keep the layers of the Illusion Onion in check, but the veils can be sneaky in the way they crop up when you are looking the other way. In a film I saw yesterday called How to Blow Up a Pipeline (everyone should see it!) there was a scene where two young saboteurs outfox two Texas Rangers through simple tactics of distraction and stealth. I would like to think I have more in common with the environmentalists than with the Rangers, but in reflection it seems I am the Ranger thrown into a comical tizzy by my own crafty shadows of self-sabotage.

What to do?

Notice. Breathe.

Sit in silence, walk in nature, forgive myself for being such a foolish mortal, and start over....

peel, peel, peel.

Isn't it funny how peeling an onion can often make one cry?