Gathas for Work

I'm currently savoring the book, How to Wake Up by Toni Bernhard.  I find her voice to be so gentle, compassionate, easy-to-understand, and wise.  I would highly recommend this book as well as her first one, How to be Sick.

In her eighth chapter, "Tools for Sharpening Your Mindfulness Skills," her last suggestion is to work with "gathas."  This being a new word for me, I was intrigued by her description of them as "... short verses from the Zen tradition that direct our attention to what we're doing in the present moment."  pg. 92

To give her readers a taste, she shares three gathas from The Dragon Who Never Sleeps by Robert Aitken.  Having had a difficult afternoon, I resonated with the third one:

"When things fall apart on the job

I vow with all beings

to use this regretful energy 

and pick up the pieces with care."

Smiling because before I read Toni's gentle suggestion that we might want to create our own gathas, I was thinking this would be something I'd very much like to do and perhaps share here.  After taking in several deep breaths and letting them out, I gift myself with practicing mindfulness right now.  Below is my gatha sharing where I am, what I want to vow, and how I want to practice mindfulness (which, as Toni explains, is Robert Aitken's personal way of writing gathas):

Feeling unfairly evaluated 

I vow with all beings

to practice gentle mercy with myself

and quietly remind myself that I am enough.

May it be so.

.     *     .