I got a chill

On the way back to York from a Buddhist meditation class in Lancaster, my companion had the Jeep window rolled half way down as she enjoyed a cigarette. I was chilled, not wearing a jacket. But the heat was on, blowing strongly towards our feet. Yet the cool 50 degree air (which will feel very warm in another month or two) swirled around my neck and made me cold.

I quickly snapped into the thought process of recognizing that I was cold and uncomfortable. Yet there are countless others out there who are much colder than I am. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all be free from being cold! Then I thought more deeply about this realization. Yes, I was uncomfortable and chilly. Yet my feet were actually on the verge of feeling too hot with the heat blowing forcefully from the vents. Further, I would be warm again soon. Once the cigarette is out and the window is back up, the rest of the car will warm up quickly. And we were on our way to a diner to get food. It'll be comfortable inside the restaurant surely, and my food will be hot.

At the same time, though, in this little grown-up farm town, there are people out on the street who have felt the cold move in with the sunset and who don't have anywhere else to go. They don't own a car where they can crank up the heat. They don't have a house and warm bed to sleep in tonight. They can't even afford the cheap diner food to warm their belly. Countless beings are experiencing much more suffering than I am. My neck is cold. I'm not as comfortable as I would like to be. But I have no right to complain or to feel unhappy about it. Think about the person who's trying to find a comfortable spot to lie down and rest out of the weather, wearing a worn out coat and shoes with holes. I have a closet full of coats and shoes in perfectly good shape that I don't wear simply because I don't like them any more. Time to empty out the closet and give away those things that could make someone else's winter evening a touch more bearable.


Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. -- 1 Corinthians 13, Paul of Tarsus