do have be

It does seem that there is a power in the concept of trinity, just ask me, the mother of three daughters. There is definitely some power going on here. Another trio, that I think we need to balance out in life is do have be. I’ve mulled this over, in different ways, before stumbling upon the simplicity of this, this morning. I’ve been wondering a lot about the do and the have, as I’ve been working really hard, ever since I was fifteen, and changed the nine on my birth certificate to an eight, so I could work downtown at fifteen, when the legal age to work was sixteen. Now, with a lot of academic work behind me also, I’m a bit tired of the doing.

I’m also pondering the having, as I wonder about what do I want to have, to own, to carry on with me into the future. As I was growing up, owning your own home was drilled into me as the epitome of having. And having your own home can be amazing, it can be safe, and a place to have fun and a place to put all your other stuff. It can also be a burden, when keeping up that home requires you not to be there, or being there just means dusting off all your stuff, when you could be say, renting something like a kayak and being somewhere on a lake. So, how hard do you work for stuff, how much do you need to hang on to “home” when life seems to be calling you out, somewhere else?

Now, (big sigh here), being. This one is the one that’s challenging me now, the one that seems, well, indulgent. The one that seems such a threat to the other two. Because, if you are being, it doesn’t really matter what you have or what you are doing, or even that big one, “What do you do?” as in, “What do you do for a living” which translates into, “Who are you?” When we allow ourselves to be, we have to let go of all the questions and all the answers that we think define us, and others. But without being, the doing and the having are empty, reverberating questions that only begin to haunt us, the more we rely on doing and having alone.

So, if we can master, and somehow integrate, do have be, maybe, just maybe that is the better way to live. The way to walk our path, without too many regrets, to face the future with both desires and the ability to enjoy what is, to savor the desires that we fill, and to be okay with each moment that just happens. Maybe...