M. Ashley

Doing the Daily Calm: Day 1 (Genesis)

In a very low moment a few months ago, my best friend gave me a book of inspirational quotes she snagged from a library sale. She didn’t give it to me to inspire me. She gave it to me so we could happily snark about each and every quote written by people much more spiritually advanced than we are. Snark at your superiors is one of the best things in life.

Before a difficult doctor’s appointment one day, we sat in the parking lot outside the office and made fun of the book for almost an hour. We laughed so hard that both of us were in tears. Somehow that devolved into making Siri pronounce dirty words SLOWLY, which, I admit, was even greater fun than making jokes about the Daily Calm.

As humor is as much a part of my spiritual development as anything, I am now going to post Daily Calm quotes and my, let’s say “unique” take on them. A little levity, a little hubris, a little tongue in the cheek never hurt anyone much.

Today’s quote:

“You cannot travel on the Path before you have become that Path itself.” -Buddha

Which seems like a really fancy way of saying the path to enlightenment involves letting people walk all over you.

-M.

More Daily Calm

Published by M. Ashley

I am an essayist and poet. My work has been rejected by some of the finest journals in America. Fortunately, it also gets accepted from time to time and has appeared in equally fine journals such as Word Riot, Inlandia, Brew City Magazine, and SageWoman, among others.. In 2002, I won the Academy of American Poets Prize for Vanderbilt University.
 For no good reason, I possess an unnecessarily dark humor which is why being third generation California Inland Empirian delights me so. My gods are weird. I once won $350 for writing a smartassed essay on “why the wise use of water is important in my daily life”. I am undoubtedly the Greek god Hermes’ special snowflake. I’m pretty sure I got into college via a series of fortuitous clerical errors.
 When I had to grow up and get a real job, I decided against it and stayed a writer. I have worked many odd—and I mean odd—jobs to support my habit: PR writer for country music hopefuls, resume massager, WalMart fitting room attendant and switchboard operator, and telephone psychic, just to name a few.
 I am also albino. That's why my psychic gifts are so strong. I traded in my pigment for magical foresight, because that's how it works. It gets all technical. Trust me. That's totally how it works.

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