A Rotisserie Chicken

Most days I go to a coffee shop to meet clients, write, and manage business details. My usual coffee shop closed, (that hurt) so I go to others to find a new one that works. I found a good seat - one of only two tables next to a big window. It has been frigid here. I have my choice of tables, so I chose the one in the sun. I have a meeting later and this is the perfect spot.

Another patron comes in right after me, a very pleasant woman with a radiant smile, and takes the other. Even as I sit down, I realize I have made the wrong choice. My brain immediately feels as though it is baking. I strain to sit there, telling myself I am enjoying the spot even as I begin to feel slightly ill from the intensity of the heat.

Ah, the other table is now available! It has been in the shade! I switch. Within five minutes the sun shifts, and is again heating up my skull. I tell myself again that I am enjoying this spot. I finally move out of the light, to the interior of the shop. My body and intuition were telling me to move, but the I that I perceive myself to be - the self attached to manipulating and judging - made a decision based on what I felt should be, rather than what is.

I am now sitting like a freshly cooked rotisserie chicken, learning the lesson I re-learn every day: do not force things, listen deeply, respond by being awake and present. When truly present we do not make decisions; the right choice reveals itself.