How does one eat an elephant? How do you even start, even if the right answer is “one bite at a time”?

I talked about June being a month to organise and energize, after three crazy months of lockdown. But honestly, I’m at a loss to start. Somehow the past months had really messed up all my inner compass. Before lockdown, all systems go, all vectors aligned. But with the lockdown, 360 degrees of change literally overnight. There’s a feeling of starting from zero, even though work continues from where it left off. The cognitive dissonance between the inner and outer world, is almost debilitating.

How does one even start?

There’s a really funny Zen story that I liked. Zen sayings are always like that – funny at first glance, confusing on first thought, deep after deep meditation. 

A monk told Joshu, “I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me.”
Joshu asked, “Have you eaten your rice porridge?
The monk replied, “I have eaten.”
Joshu said, “Then you had better wash your bowl.”
At that moment the monk was enlightened.

Perhaps this is how it is. As simple as that. Or even simpler. Radical simplicity. Just  ”wash your bowl”. 

Looking around my desk, I saw—perhaps for the first time—all the mess from three months of craziness. Books piled up. Bills stacked underneath them. Dust balls collecting hidden corners. Remnants of aspirational artefacts like my $2 money jar, laying there like a relic from the past.

I think I will start by just clearing my desk, as I would “wash my bowl”.