This is the Way

My daughter is in love with the “Mandalorian” series on Disney +, and therefore, we watch it a lot. There is a character, which most people call, Baby Yoda, whose actual name is Grogu and he is captivatingly cute. The plotline in the two-season series centers around a Mandalorian warrior trying to get this adorable little creature back to the Jedi, where he belongs. The Mandalorians, a clan-based cultural group live by the same culture, creed and code. Their mantra is “This is the Way.”

This phrase became readily adopted in my household, referring to everything from an explanation as to why perfectly able-bodied teenagers don’t clean their rooms to a sad acknowledgement over the events on the evening news.

It has also been drifting through my mind, and prompted me to think about “the way” I strive to live now compared to “the way” of the world I live in. I’ve reached the point where spending too much time in the ways of the world fills me with unease, discouragement and dissatisfaction. By contrast, spending time in The Way fills me with peace, hope and purpose.

If you’re wondering what these “ways” are that I refer to, I can describe them to you by detailing what comprises them.

The Way of the World

The way of the world is what society expects of us, or encourages us to do with our lives. The activities or pursuits of our worldly ways include:

• Binging on Netflix series
• Scrolling through social media feeds
• Drinking at Happy Hour with friends
• Buying “stuff” we are lured into thinking we need
• Participating in busy-ness
• Seeking validation from others (often ushered in by comparision)
• Focusing on the self
• Indulging in junk food

The Way

The way is how God, or your idea of a benevolent force that is larger than you and your understanding, wants us to live. This is a life of love, service and satisfaction. It is wellness. The activities and pursuits that make up the way can look slightly different to each individual, but includes:

• Engaging in your passion (which for me is writing)
• Connecting to God, friends and family in an authentic way
• Exercising to keep your body in a state of health and wellness
• Decluttering and minimizing the amount of “stuff” in your environment
• Meditating to calm the mind, heart and soul
• Praying and seeking validation from God
• Focusing on others and how you can serve
• Eating mindfully and healthfully

THIS is the way. When I am practicing the habits mentioned here, I know that I am on the right path. I feel a sense of peace and rightness in my life despite what the world around me looks like.

I am reading a book by Anne Lamott about prayer called Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers, and her definition really fit into the palm of my hand and rested in the space of my heart. She doesn’t get hung up on the definition of God, and what prayer should look like. “It is communication from the heart to that which surpasses understanding.” When we pray in faith, we are earnestly seeking connection with something bigger than ourselves and bigger than our understanding.

She goes on to describe the exact condition and circumstances I found myself in the night I quit drinking:

Prayer can be motion and stillness and energy–all at the same time. It begins with stopping in our tracks, or with our backs against the wall, or when we are going under the waves, or when we are just so sick and tired of being psychically sick and tired that we surrender, or at least we finally stop running away and at long last walk or lurch or crawl toward something. Or maybe, miraculously, we just release our grip slightly.

Anne Lamott

It takes an act of surrender, a crawling toward the light, a release on our grip of the things of this world to be able to understand the way of living that brings peace. And this way of living is not the way of the world. And I’m okay with that.

The more time I spend binge-watching, scrolling, comparing, hustling, shopping, seeking comfort, serving myself, and consuming things I shouldn’t, the more I shrink into nothingness and meaninglessness.

The more time I spend writing, connecting, exercising, decluttering, mediating, praying, serving and eating mindfully, the more I grow and occupy the space I’m meant to fill in this world.

And this is the way.