Life Is a Verb by Patti Digh

Author:Patti Digh [DIGH, PATTI]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780762785094
Publisher: skirt!

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. —Rumi

“Our property taxes—just property taxes—were $30,000! Can you imagine! Of course, it was a three-story house on the biggest lake in Texas, and we had two boats and a boat landing, but still!” she exclaimed. I half expected to hear the make, model, and cost of her washer and dryer. “It was a huge amount of upkeep,” she continued. “But of course, we hired all that out.” Of course.

It was a performance, a tally of worth voiced for my benefit. We were on the deck of the beautiful Pana Sea Ah Bed and Breakfast on the Oregon coast, waves crashing behind us. I didn’t know her; she was a guest there, like me. I fantasized about a large wave splashing over her, muffling the sound of her accounting.

Why do we measure our worth in such ways? We all do it—either by our bank account or pant size, our IQ or length of our bio, the number of visitors to our Web site or the number of people in our Rolodex. What is that magic yardstick against which we measure our worth in the world? Is it the square footage in our home, the make of our cars, the number of countries we have visited, the number of links we have? Do we love ourselves for who we are or only what we have? Do we love others for who they are, not what they have?

I squelched the perverse urge to ask how large her boats were. It wouldn’t do to encourage her.

IN MANY WAYS WE WERE DRUGGED WHEN WE WERE YOUNG. WE WERE BROUGHT UP TO NEED PEOPLE. FOR WHAT? FOR ACCEPTANCE, APPROVAL, APPRECIATION, APPLAUSE.

—Anthony de Mello

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