There Is No Cheese
I really should quit letting work get to me so much. After all, as long as I do the work given, why should I stress out about things that are out of my control? In the grander scheme of things, is it really important?

I once worked at Denny's waiting tables. A local church had a soup kitchen and one night there was this homeless guy that came in for coffee. He had the traditional beard and ratty brown coat and ordered a coffee which I kept refilling for him for hours. It ws the midnight shift and eventually he was one of the only customers in the restaurant. If my manager had been there, he'd have kicked him out, but it was a slow night so it was just me and the cook. I sat down and talked to the guy for a while. It must have been a couple hours. He told me a lot about his life. He told me about how wonderful it was to sleep in bushes under the night sky. He told me about the magic he felt was all around and that most people never noticed. They never stopped to look. That morning when my shift ended I walked away with the realization that this guy was truly happy. He had no job, ratty old clothes and very little money but he was happy. The man was not Buddhist, but he seemed to be in touch with his Buddha-nature. He was enjoying his life no matter where it took him.

I keep thinking that someone should write one of those self help/business books from a Buddhist perspective. Instead of "Who Moved My Cheese?", they could title it "There is No Cheese."