Simplicity of Mind

Simplicity of Mind
By
J.R. Richards

I love simple. The simplicity of a warm breeze on a sunny day or watching 2 kittens playing in the green grass makes my heart soar. Simple frees my mind to feel the joy in each individual object my eyes fall on. Simple also connects me to someone else, no matter who they are, because everyone seems to understand simple.

People understand simple acts of kindness or simple acts of love because these are things we all search for. For example, when you have a bad day and your friend brings you a card and a bottle of wine to cheer you up, these are simple acts of love that really don’t need any words to express, you can feel their understanding and compassion by the expression on their face and by their actions.

When you think of your favorite thing, is it truly the object that gives you happiness and joy? When you become aware of your feelings, you realize that it is not the object that you desire but the feeling that you get from that object that you truly want.

My husband and I love going to a local Chinese restaurant to eat. I realized a few days ago that it’s not the restaurant, the food, or the atmosphere that we enjoy but it’s being together and talking about whatever we want. I would still feel the same feelings if we went to a different restaurant or even if we were able to stay home and be alone for awhile. It is the simple love and connected feeling that I get when I spend my time with someone who loves me and doesn’t have any expectations of me at that moment and when we can just sit and enjoy the simple act of being together. I’ve even had times where my husband didn’t have to say anything to me and I felt a wonderful feeling of closeness to him.

I also love to study; I’ve studied the basics of a lot of different religions in life trying to find the common understanding in all of them. In many of them the common ground is simple things that everyone feels deep inside like love, peace, understanding, freedom, closeness to the Creator, worthiness, the list could go on but you understand what I am saying. It’s the simple things in life that really add up and make a positive change.

The present moment is a gift and we need to do the best we can in each moment, don’t worry about dinner, or what you are going to have to do tomorrow at work, or what you have to do next week, the point is to live each moment as if it were on purpose. I have to admit that I got that saying from a movie I watched not long ago about a man whose job it was to provide opportunities for men and women to meet; it was a good movie by the way. In that movie I also seen that in the simpleness of the moment is where opportunity lies, or more importantly, when you share yourself in a simple manner, opportunities come out of nowhere.

There is nothing wrong with studying more complicated teaching as I do believe these help us reach higher levels of understanding, I just don’t want to lose that simpleness of being, of feeling each moment for the joy that is contained within it.

Personally, when I study more complicated teachings, I have to stop after awhile and recharge my batteries, the best and most effective way for me to do this is to be in nature. The ultimate recharge is in the woods, I LOVE the smell of the trees, the leaves, the dirt; it’s all so therapeutic and simple. I don’t need to understand what goes on inside the tree to enjoy it, even though there is more going on in there than any of us realize.

As I sit here looking out my window, I see the fields, the trees, how gently the wind is blowing through them and these feelings of peace and contentment rise within me. As I sit here I feel the simplicity of being me.

– J.R. Richards –