Take a Mulligan
“If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?” — RUMI
In golf, taking a mulligan is a “do-over,” taking another shot after a bad one. This morning started with a few minor irritations that I had to take care of right away. It interrupted my morning rituals and I was going to skip morning pages, writing my daily post for Cast-Light and listening to Insight Timer, my daily non-negotiable activities. The details aren’t relevant other than it offered an inflection point to decide if it would be major and direct the rest of my day.
Hard STOP. Pivot over spiral.
I decided to take a “mulligan” and restart the day to choose the direction rather than succumb to the spiral of a bad start, of a golf ball shanked into the woods.
The thing about mulligans is that you can only take them in the present moment, at the precise point of inflection. It is the only time that they work. We can’t take mulligans for what’s happened in the past. While we linger in past offences — both received and given, in roads not taken and taken, in words said and not said, time is ticking. We forgo and fritter away the present, the only place we can influence and experience.
While we can’t change the past, we can heed the lessons to do things differently, choose new paths and know that every mile mattered to get to the present. The past has had its turn, the present offers new trails and adventures to explore, to start fresh each day. In those moments when you start to spiral to old patterns and triggers, familiar reactions, making minor things major, take a mulligan to change the trajectory of your day upward and forward.
Create and commit to two to three “non-negotiables” for yourself to not only serve yourself better but others as well. What we offer daily — positive or negative — is cast upon the world and returns to us tenfold. When the golf ball plops in the middle of the pond, choose the positive, take a mulligan, drop another ball and take another swing. Start from a settled place, centered in intention and attention, to properly prepare yourself to see the extraordinary in ordinary days.
“The beginning is always today.”― Mary Shelley
Originally published at https://cast-light.com on February 7, 2021.
