Comparing Snow

All sorts of grumbling is rumbling around here about the snow. Harrumph.
It's supposed to be spring.
Our Facebook friends from California are posting pictures of magnolia blossoms, and all we have to look at are the pregnant buds of the red maple.
And it's cold here. Bah, humbug.

Can you hear the comparing mind at work?
"It's supposed to be" spring, but it looks like winter.
Flowers are blooming elsewhere, but not here.
It's cold here (18 degrees this morning). It was warm last week when i was in Cancun/Costa Rica/the Caribbean/Tel Aviv.

The mind compares our present experience with some other (past or imaginary) experience, and we feel dissatisfied with the present moment.

We could simply experience the raw data of the present moment: chilly, sunny, snowy, beautiful, hungry birds, red maple buds. This is the truth of the moment. Before our opinions reclaim our attention and twist our heart into grumpiness.

Thanks to Dawn Downey for her blog,
 Stumbling Toward the Buddha.