We had a full-on heatwave here in the UK last week. The entire upper storey of the house was uninhabitable, we lived as a family—working, resting, eating, sleeping—in the one cool(ish) room in the house, many cold showers were taken and I eventually took to overnighting outdoors in our van, as the only way of returning my body temperature to something approaching normal and getting a good night’s sleep.
Any time the sun wasn’t directly on them, windows and curtains were wide open.
Which meant there were more flies than normal.
Flies are pesky, aren’t they?
- Sometimes they’re there, sometimes they’re not
- They have a tiring regularity to them – swat one and another appears
- The more you chase them, the more persistent they seem
- It’s easy to become a bit obsessed with achieving some unattainable state of ‘no flies’ (to the detriment of all else).
Fly drama
On that last point, during the recent heatwave, one of us was very much in this camp. TV couldn’t be watched, homework couldn’t be done, meals couldn’t be eaten—the room couldn’t even be occupied!—if there was a fly.
Every time one was observed, there was drama.
🪰😩
Personally, I’m not particularly bothered by them. They’ll fly around and occasionally land on me, at which point a swish of the hand will put them back into flight. One might be attracted to the TV screen, but it’ll find something else to occupy it not long after, and go again.
I’ll generally get on with my life, in spite of flies.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I (and when I say “I” here, I’m referring to the Giles Ego Construct 📦) doesn’t like flies. Quite the opposite.
If you were a child in the UK in the 1980’s, you’ll no doubt have been traumatised, as I was, by the Public Service Announcement-type posters that seemed to be everywhere (realistically, there’d have been one on a wall at school somewhere, but boy did that image stick in my Thought System!!!), spelling out in gory detail exactly how flies work.
But unless I’m literally sitting down to eat the steak in question and a fly tries to spend five minutes on it (or unless one of my house-mates is having the screaming abdabs and I’m tasked to, upon pain of death), I’m unlikely to spring into action with the fly swatter, and ensure I never get into Buddhist Heaven (is that a thing)?
Flies are neutral
Which makes flies the perfect metaphor, surely?
You know, for thoughts.
- Sometimes they’re there, sometimes they’re not
- They have a tiring regularity to them – swat one and another appears
- The more you chase them, the more persistent they seem
- It’s easy to become a bit obsessed with achieving some unattainable state of ‘no thought’ (to the detriment of all else).
Let’s not do that, eh?
Because flies are quite obviously neutral. They just are. Sometimes they bother us, sometimes they don’t. They can require that action is taken, but most often, they don’t.
They affect different people/beings differently (“Spiders don’t mind them, do they Dad?” my Chica once observed, in a moment of clarity during flying ant season) and generally, the less attention you pay them, the more at ease you will be with life and all the things that are a natural part of it.
Just like thought.
💟
Giles
p.s. The picture at the top of this Daily Reminder could almost act as an Innate Health Barometer® 🌡️ If that image slid in, and then back out of your consciousness without making that much of an impact, well, hey ho.
But if it filled you with horror and got your snow globe all shook up (to the point where you’re unlikely to be reading this p.s!), then why not get in touch for some support. Because that experience can—and will—change completely after a block of sessions together. 💝
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Giles P Croft
A proper look at how everything that arises is neutral.