200 Marbles
Hope is what keeps you going, but hope keeps you focused on the future, and this continued focus perpetuates your denial of the Now and therefore your unhappiness.
Eckhard Tolle, "The Power of Now"
I had the idea to pay the repair guy from Marble 205 to cut a piece of plywood for the top of my hope chest. He cut the wood, sanded it, then offered to stain the top and put it back on its hinges. I thought about it but then declined. I wanted to be the one to make the top of the chest and cover it with padding and the fabric of my choice.
Today I finished the hope chest and it looks great in our living room. It’s a bit lumpier than the one in the magazine, but I’m quite proud of it. Sure, it’s only a hope chest, but as Pandora’s box suggests, what do we really have if we don’t have hope?
In the Greek myth, Pandora was the first woman and like Eve, she was equally curious. She was given a box and was told not to open it and, like her biblical counterpart, her curiosity got the better of her. When she lifted the lid, all the evils of the world escaped and ruined her idyllic existence. When she realized what she had done, she quickly secured the lid back on her box. The only thing that hadn’t escaped was hope. The myth tells us that no matter what goes down, humanity is always left with hope.
It’s not a coincidence that just as my relationship with Ex-man was falling apart, so was my hope chest – the hope chest that my father had made for me. The chest that metaphorically held all my dreams of having a family of my own, of having a love to call my own. When the chest broke, Ex-man started working on re-building it, but he never completed it. He took me part of the way but it was my job to finish (both literally and metaphorically). It was up to me to stain and varnish the sides and more importantly, it was up to me to figure a way to put the lid back on. With the lid back on, this much is clear: the only love I can call my own is me.
As Eckhard Tolle suggests, does focusing on hope keep you from enjoying the present? What would it take for you to have more ease with this time of my life?
There's an old riddle that goes, "What is always coming but never arrives?" The answer: Tomorrow. What would it take for you to enjoy the only thing that you can really count on - Today?
Hope is what keeps you going, but hope keeps you focused on the future, and this continued focus perpetuates your denial of the Now and therefore your unhappiness.
Eckhard Tolle, "The Power of Now"
I had the idea to pay the repair guy from Marble 205 to cut a piece of plywood for the top of my hope chest. He cut the wood, sanded it, then offered to stain the top and put it back on its hinges. I thought about it but then declined. I wanted to be the one to make the top of the chest and cover it with padding and the fabric of my choice.
Today I finished the hope chest and it looks great in our living room. It’s a bit lumpier than the one in the magazine, but I’m quite proud of it. Sure, it’s only a hope chest, but as Pandora’s box suggests, what do we really have if we don’t have hope?
In the Greek myth, Pandora was the first woman and like Eve, she was equally curious. She was given a box and was told not to open it and, like her biblical counterpart, her curiosity got the better of her. When she lifted the lid, all the evils of the world escaped and ruined her idyllic existence. When she realized what she had done, she quickly secured the lid back on her box. The only thing that hadn’t escaped was hope. The myth tells us that no matter what goes down, humanity is always left with hope.
It’s not a coincidence that just as my relationship with Ex-man was falling apart, so was my hope chest – the hope chest that my father had made for me. The chest that metaphorically held all my dreams of having a family of my own, of having a love to call my own. When the chest broke, Ex-man started working on re-building it, but he never completed it. He took me part of the way but it was my job to finish (both literally and metaphorically). It was up to me to stain and varnish the sides and more importantly, it was up to me to figure a way to put the lid back on. With the lid back on, this much is clear: the only love I can call my own is me.
As Eckhard Tolle suggests, does focusing on hope keep you from enjoying the present? What would it take for you to have more ease with this time of my life?
There's an old riddle that goes, "What is always coming but never arrives?" The answer: Tomorrow. What would it take for you to enjoy the only thing that you can really count on - Today?
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