Where the Heck is my Garbage Can?

Twice in 2 weeks I have gone outside to put my garbage in the trash can , and its gone! The city graciously replaced it, and again this week it’s gone. With no “place” to put my garbage I wonder now, where can I put it? Got me thinking, how do we relate to what feels like garbage inside our minds? Where do we put it? Society tells us the message, we need to get rid of bad thoughts, stress, anxiety, struggle. Pema Chodron, an American Tibetan Buddhist meditation teacher says there’s nothing to get rid of. Rather, turn towards the so-called garbage with a friendliness and open-hearted quality. We don’t need to throw it away. The irony lies in relating to our “inner” garbage in a decidedly different way, which in turn helps to lessen the pull that there is something to get rid of and wrong. With time I have come to know that what’s been wrong with my way of dealing with my own “inner” garbage was how I was attending to it. I wanted to throw it out, never to see it again! Would be nice if that were actually possible. But since I can’t actually literally throw out my garbage at this moment in time, this realization came to be. There’s wisdom even in garbage. Who knew???