As I get older, I am increasingly satisfied with simple gifts for birthdays and holidays, and often, none at all. There’s nothing I really need and I’ve no list of “have-to-haves”.
This book of Nikki Giovanni’s poems is my holiday gift and it made me happy. I got it for myself. Somehow, I knew just what I wanted.
One day, I imagine, another breath, or a sip of water, or a smile, or sunlight through the window blinds will satisfy me.
I gave a talk recently suggesting that our conventional approach to our lives is to continually acquire, more and more. But in our Zen practice we “dequire”, a word I made up that may be apt. Dequire meaning to let it all go, to be satisfied with what comes without grasping for more. That feels like freedom to me.
Here’s to less and less for us all.
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