For most of my life I’ve considered myself a “cup’s 1/2 full” sort of person. That’s because I’ve long believed (and told anyone that cared to listen) that optimism IS realism. The world is just too darn fabulous to allow for any other correlation. But I’m not a “cup’s 1/2 full” sort of person anymore. Or a “cup’s 1/2 empty” sort of person either.
Recently I realized that I’m a “my cup overflows” sort of person. Though I certainly don’t always live this way, I intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, viscerally believe that my cup overflows. And not just my cup. Everyone’s cup. The universe is too magnificently beneficent, too overflowing with loving-kindness, for there to be any other way to live than with an overflowing cup.
Recognizing that my cup overflows doesn’t mean living as though everything is perfect. My cup can still overflow even as I witness more than enough pain, suffering, and bad stuff going on all around me. It’s not about perfection. It’s about the fact that, like it or not, my cup overflows. Sometimes the overflow is tinged with fear, suffering, sadness, or worse. But rather than draining the cup, it simply adds to it.
So now I’m challenging myself to figure out how to live with this awareness. Though I don’t know exactly what they are, I believe that there are deep and enduring implications for how I conduct my daily life. I need to learn how to drink from the cup, let the cup overflow, and understand that I am part of the overflow as well.
But for now (and I think for the rest of my life), I’d rather figure out what to do with my overflowing cup than quibble about whether my cup is 1/2 full or 1/2 empty.