My favorite barista, Laura, was ringing up my order when she directed a curious look toward the neighborhood of my right ear. I immediately assumed there was a noodle hanging there—a hazard of my lunchtime habits—but it turned out to be something far more interesting.
"A Tootsie Roll is coming out of your ear," she said.
Well, those weren't her exact words, but that's what my startled brain heard. And as soon as she said it, I knew the Universe was tapping me on the shoulder with one of its cosmic pranks; a reminder that the material is not what it seems, no doubt.
Because, let's be clear: Tootsie Rolls don't move about by ear-hole; they're delivered by 18-wheelers—like the one that was seen through the window behind me, at just the right level to align with my ear from Laura's vantage point. A perfectly mundane explanation for a delightfully absurd moment.
The timing couldn't have been better. Just before Laura's vision, I'd been planning a new meditation workshop. I'd spent most of the morning thinking about how our minds tell us things that aren't true; how they create stories, fill in gaps, and sometimes convince us that Tootsie Rolls are sprouting from our ears.
Meditation, I would explain to students in my class, can teach us to harness our minds in more beneficial ways. To see clearly in other words. To distinguish true reality from the stories we tell ourselves.
And here was the Universe, right on cue, delivering a perfect teaching moment via an 18-wheeler and a barista with a good eye for visual comedy.
Now, for those of you who think the purpose of this post is to announce my workshop, you're close. I'm actually announcing a new blog that will focus on meditation and these little moments where reality reveals itself to be far stranger—and funnier—than we usually notice. I'll tell you all about it in that blog. I know it's a nick out of time, but that's the way I work. Sometimes enlightenment arrives by Tootsie Roll truck, and sometimes blog announcements arrive sideways.
Stay tuned. And watch out for what's emerging from your ears.
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