23 June 2007 Saturday

Just breathe

Dad’s nearly always had this viewpoint/technique that if you just focus on your breathing, then basically most things will be mostly better.

As simple as it is, I always forget how it’s supposed to work, or I forget about it, so then when I ask him, he patiently reminds me: “just concentrate on your breathing.”
But I’ll get distracted.
“That’s fine. You’ll get distracted and forget. But then you’ll remember, ‘hey, I was concentrating on my breathing’ and you’ll get back to it. That’s what discipline is. You’ll stray and misstep and forget, but you remember and you bring yourself back. And you keep doing that and one day you won’t forget anymore.”

(If you pay attention.)