The other day, I was sorting through the library of books stacked in piles around my office. I came across my dog-eared copy of The Night Circus. The name triggered a bizarre memory about a summer trip to the Fair. As a young girl, I was unfortunate to have multiple small warts on my hands. I remember being so frustrated because the more that they bothered me and the more that I tried to eliminate them, they just seemed to multiply.
During this trip to the Fair, I remember standing in line for one of the carnival rides. The operator stopped the ride at my chair. I was young and not particularly tall. He grabbed my hand to help me up onto the ride. As he looked down at my hand, he rubbed his finger over the warts that were visible on my extended fingers. He looked at me and said, ‘They will go away’. I just looked at him, not really thinking anything at all about his comment. I had all but forgotten about him until about a week later. As I washed my hands, I realized that the warts were gone.
That moment was the catalyst that sparked my curiosity about the power of our minds. It’s not a wonder that Buddhism struck such a chord with me, when I came across it. How we create crap for ourselves and how to un-create the same crap by mastering our minds, of course made good sense to me. And yes, that all goes back to that stranger at a fair.
I think our biggest moments are defined, well after the fact. How can we possibly understand the long term importance of something or someone? It is unknowable.
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 