The Law of Detachment (or how not to say,"@^&*%&*$#@&^"!)

"Can I just tell you how hard it is to follow the Law of Detachment when, right before you leave for your wonderful Chopra Center retreat you check the mail from the day before and learn that you got a $100 ticket for a red light "violation" and when I say it with "quotes" I mean that because I KNOW I slowed down and if I didn't stop for the prescribed three seconds, well, they can just go and sit and spin on that fleepin' red light camera because there's no sign saying you have to stop for three seconds, now IS there? Because I sure as heck didn't see it!  Where's the countdown?  Where's the egg timer?"

(cleansing breath)

The above inner conversation played over and over like an old, wrinkled, scratchy cassette tape on my way in to the retreat center today.  I looked at the situation every which way, I felt violated, and I cursed the City of Berwyn, the annoying red robotic camera, the maker of the annoying red robotic camera, the planetary alignment on the day the photo was taken, and the Wendy's berry almond salad that I kept from falling on the floor which may  have made me slow down for two rather than three seconds on that fateful day.  I cursed them and I cursed them all upside down and from left to right.  They were all complicit in turning my day of Sweetness and Light into the day of Bitterness and RED Light.

Like I said, it was quite hard to detach, but detach I finally did.  I meditated and I did some reflection on the whole situation.  And here's what I came up with:

In the whole grand scheme of things, it's no big deal.  If the City of Berwyn ends up with one hundred dollars of my money, I hope they use it to continue their civic clean-up. In the past few years, this near west Chicago suburb has really gotten a lot cooler, with a variety of nifty shops and great restaurants.  They've installed new curbs and streetlights.  A friend of mine who's a long-time resident has even gone as far as saying it's "hip".  Outcome: a prettier, friendlier Berwyn.

And I think the City of Berwyn should write a nice thank you note to the Chopra Center, for helping me to work through this situation, using one of the Seven Spiritual Laws. Because if I received this notice even a few days ago, my conversation, mood, and eventual attitude would have been much different.

Let's use some adorable canine imagery.  Instead of this pup (who still hopes the ticket will be thrown out, or at least severely discounted):


It woulda been something like THIS:
   And you don't want THIS pup behind the wheel of a car, now do you?
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