Middle Of The Boat

I try to meditate each day, to exercise my body, to eat some protein, and be helpful to others.  It keeps me balanced.  It is called, "staying in the middle of the boat."  When I skip meditation, for instance, I am moving to the edge of the boat.  I am getting a bit rocky and out of balance.  At some point, I will go over the edge and be drowning in my own mess of faults and bad behavior.  My boat is always in the middle of the water.  All around me is messy behavior, but if I stay in the middle of the boat, I am OK.  I remind myself of this each morning when I might want to just blow it all off, or am too busy with some more important task, or think I am a saint and can skip prayer.  I can get an important task done from the edge of the boat, but it may be the last good thing done with good behavior for that day.  I can wake up from a night's sleep in the middle of the boat if I am not over scheduled for the day ahead, saving the world with my focused ego, seeing the world as disaster unless I get into "Super" mode.  There are no oars in the boat.  I may have plans to get somewhere, but then so does everyone else.  Sometimes, the best thing I do is pick up people who fell out of their boat...and don't even know it.  Kindness, patience, acceptance, a smile all helps.  I try not to be too busy for the drowning person.