The GoodBye Yellow Brick Road album by Elton John has been my favorite since I started listening to it in the 1970s. I always liked the title song, GoodBye Yellow Brick Road. I just assumed it was about a relationship gone wrong and a guy leaving a girl. A few years ago I saw an interview with Bernie Taupin, who wrote the lyrics. He explained that the song is about anything that doesn’t turn out to be as good or valuable as one anticipated or hoped. I listened to the song more closely and understood what he was talking about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDOL7iY8kfo
It got me thinking about things in my life that fall into the disappointing category. That list for most people can be long and I’m no exception. However, I chose to view it differently. Going through life obsessed with wanting things to be a certain way so I can be happy is fools gold. I found that wanting what I have, is more important than having what I want. I started making a concerted effort to notice every time I felt disappointed with the way circumstances turned out during the day. Each time that happened I focused on dealing with them as they were, rather than being upset.
To help with this new philosophy I made an adjustment to my prayer life. Instead of praying for things to be the way I want, my prayer life can be summed up in two words, thank you. That sets the tone for my outlook to be one of gratitude.
I still have preferences and put forth effort for what I want, but a quote from Adam Smith explains what I mean. “The great source of both misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another. Some of them, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others. But none of them can deserve to be pursued with a passionate ardour which draws us to violate the rules of either prudence or of Justice, or to corrupt the future tranquility of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or by remorse from the horror of our own injustice.”
Each morning after my quiet time I repeat the following statement. “It is said that the gap between accepting things the way they are and wishing it to be otherwise, is the tenth of an inch between heaven and hell. By accepting whatever hand I’ve been dealt, no matter how unwelcome, the way to proceed eventually becomes clear. This is what is meant by right action, the capacity to observe what is happening and act appropriately, remembering that I am always enough. By staying present, my quiet objective mind allows me to act in the most beneficial way for myself and others.” I am paraphrasing a statement by Phil Jackson made in his book Sacred Hoops. It gets me started on the right foot for the day. I also listen to the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road song before I sit down to breakfast.
To me this is what Jesus was talking about in the Luke 17:21 passage. “The Kingdom of God is within you.” Many times Jesus talked of the importance of self denial or humbling myself. The world doesn’t revolve around my wants. This is easier for me to do when I am accepting of how circumstances are now, instead of being upset that they aren’t the way I want them to be. It takes the pressure off and I’m able to live a more peaceful life on its terms, not mine.
“So Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, where the dogs of society howl” that I must get things my way. I’m going back to the simple, more childlike existence of accepting circumstances in the present moment and wanting what I have.
May you have enough, one moment at a time, beyond the yellow brick road.
THIS HELPED ME 