Sometimes, You Have to Learn to Stay Calm While the Chaos Buzzes Around You
Keep smiling

Another one! I stood by my office window as the meditation I wanted to listen to streamed, unaware I wasn’t ready for it yet. A visiting wasp hummed along with its comrades.
“It’s December,” I said. “Shouldn’t you hibernate in a wood stack or something?”
They ignored me and continued to sniff and flit, rummaging through my paperwork and crawling on the sill like they owned it.
And all the while, Buddhist monk Thich Nath Hanh’s words of the Great Bell Chant rang in the room.
“Understanding comes to their heart…”
The prayer loitered in the background while I dodged willful wasps.
“And they transcend the path…”
I chose not to swipe and aimed to stop furrowing my brow.
“The sound of the rising tide is heard clearly…”
Thich’s prayer continued.
“The miracle happens. A beautiful child appears in the heart of a lotus flower…”
There were five wasps in stripy pajamas with me now.
Maybe they like the meditation, I pondered.
“One single drop of this compassionate water is enough to bring back the refreshing spring to our mountains and rivers…”
I mustn’t get annoyed. I’m meditating. The intruders buzzed around my head.
“A smile is born on my lips…”
I took a step back and watched a whale and her baby on the screen while a wasp sat on my shoulder.
“Following the sound of the bell, my breath brings me back…”
Time for you to leave I mumbled in my head, and reached for a piece of card to usher the wee beasties out, and with one short, extra loud buzz, the final critter flew back into the autumn sky.
“To the safe island of mindfulness…”
I sighed. But then the realization I’d undergone a mini life-lesson hit me on the head. There. I stayed calm amid the chaos. Thank you Thich Nhat Hanh.
