A friend who spent decades as a monk recently shared with me a pocket card that he and the other monastics were given at one point in his tenure. The card enumerated 10 reminders the monks and nuns were asked to keep present in their consciousness as they went about their daily activities. The points ranged from always keep your mind upon God to eat food slowly and avoid too much salt. I thought the purpose of the card terrific; valuable to anyone: a list of the key reminders we want front-of-mind no matter what comes our way. (A nation gone wacky, for instance.)
Of course, since monastic life is anchored in a vow of obedience, those monks and nuns were “given” the 10 points they were encouraged to remember––each receiving the same 10. Those of us free of such vows have the privilege of choosing the cues we’d like in our back pocket at all times. Among the reasons I find this process so rewarding is that we can pick things that are particularly gnarly for us. Even better, we can change our list anytime we wish for the rest of our lives. As you know, the universe is not shy about revealing new things worth remembering.
Below is my first crack at ten, plus a few extra, in case they stimulate your own discovery process. Before you get to them, however, I have a request. If you find this exercise useful, I would love to see the list of things you want to remember. We all have so much to learn (and steal) from one another.
