I was in a yoga class recently where the theme for the morning was Lakshmi, the goddess of abundance. I knew this about her. What I did not know was that she is also known as The Restless One; the one who keeps creating more and more and more. Without end. This aspect of Her reflects the principle of creation spiraling out of control. What is it that finally allows The Restless One to settle down into enough? Finding what she loves. Finding what matters most to her in all the worlds. The Hindu mythologies so beautifully and poignantly depict the experience of being alive. In this world view, the gods and goddesses are not just energies somewhere up in the sky, but are, instead, reflections, lessons and guidance for those of us here on Earth.

That day my mind kept coming back to something that I know to be true: When we find what matters most in our lives, something inside of us settles down and gets very, very focused. And very, very clear. It is like all else begins to recede into the background when you have your eyes squarely focused on what is most meaningful to you in life. Given the times we are living in, could this not be the one True North for all of us? The technologies are accelerating the pace of our lives and our attempts to keep up. The screens are more and more usurping the time we spend with our loved ones. Personal devices continue to squeeze out our children’s childhood. It is all happening at such a rate and to such an extent that it is hard to know how to handle all of it. Mostly, it seems to be taking us over and having its way with us.

But what if we made a conscious and regular effort to identify what we most love in life. What if we allowed the depth of that to still our frenzied mind and consumptive behavior? What if we stripped everything down to that? And for that. From this perspective, there is no deprivation. There is no hardship when we align with what matters most, even if that means doing without, or letting some things go. Perhaps one of the greatest abuses of the way we use the technologies is how we regularly loose track of what matters most. Instead of being part of a destructive creation cycle, what if we learned to still ourselves through love? Through protecting childhood. Through honoring our bodily needs. Through honoring our relationships. Through creating instead of destroying what is most precious to us in all the worlds.