Taking Out the Trash

I have a little story for you. A different kind of story than normally found here.

This morning, I awoke extra early. 5 A.M. to be exact. The house was quiet and dark. My hubby's out of town. Let me also explain that this week has been challenging. More than challenging. Lots to deal with. None of it good. Peaking yesterday with an abscessed tooth and an emergency root canal.

So with this gift of quiet time, I knew I needed a shift . . . some calm in the storm. I clicked on a tranquil little meditation stored on my computer. Twenty minutes of breathing and stillness. Ahhhhh, perfect. I began.

Breathe. In. Out. In. Out.

Not 60 seconds into my blissful state, I realized my computer was bleeping. If you have a MAC, you'd recognize that annoying bleep. The kind warning you when one of your applications needs updating. I opened my eyes to scan the screen for the normally accompanying jumping icon. Nothing. Nothing needed updating. Hmm.

Breathe. In. Out. In. Out.

The sound intensified, quickened. I thought, "I can do this. I can still my mind enough to ignore that bleeping bleep!"

Breathe. In. Out. AAaaaarrrgghhhhh! It won't stop!

Ignore it . . . breathe. In. Out. In. Out.

Somehow through the repetitive bleeping, I managed to quiet down my monkey mind. It came to me in a sudden flash. "Empty the trash", my now still internal voice said. "Just empty the trash." I opened one eye. Do I dare disrupt this stillness I'm feeling? "Yes," it said.

I opened both eyes, glanced at the "trash can" icon and clicked "empty the trash". It worked! The bleeping stopped immediately. Wow, I've never had that much trash in the can before. So I guess it's never bleeped at me.

Breathe. In. Out. In. Out. Peace. Restored.

I sat for the remaining 10 minutes of the meditation with a smile on my face. Listening to my inner voice had worked. How quickly I forget that. Emptying my computer's trash can of all 217 items worked.

A subtle clue to also clear my mind of this week's "trashy" thoughts. I'm dumping all 217 of them!