{"id":1758,"date":"2011-09-29T15:37:01","date_gmt":"2011-09-29T19:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=1758"},"modified":"2011-09-29T15:37:01","modified_gmt":"2011-09-29T19:37:01","slug":"what-were-meant-to-be-a-story-of-changing-lanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/09\/what-were-meant-to-be-a-story-of-changing-lanes.html","title":{"rendered":"what we&#8217;re &#8216;meant&#8217; to be: a story of changing lanes ~"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is, ostensibly, a dog story. Of a dog &#8212; Ricochet &#8212; who was born &amp; bred to be a service dog, but disappointed. And what happened afterwards&#8230; <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"First ever surf therapy dog inspires world! Kleenex alert\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BGODurRfVv4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Buddhism talks about letting go. The opposite of letting go is attachment, which <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Faiths\/Buddhism\/2000\/12\/Letting-Go-Letting-Be.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Lama Surya Das<\/a> likens to &#8220;holding on tightly to something that is always slipping through [your] fingers &#8212; it just gives [you] rope burn.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It wasn&#8217;t Ricochet &#8216;holding on,&#8217; nor was it Ricochet who had to &#8216;let go.&#8217; Beginner&#8217;s heart is like that: I&#8217;m the one asking that my beginner&#8217;s heart be what it&#8217;s not &#8212; quieter, more disciplined, more reflective. All good things, and qualities I cultivate. But certainly not as much a part of me as passion, a hunger for equity, a fierce determination to &#8216;right&#8217; things.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/239\/2011\/09\/year-of-the-dragon.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1762\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/239\/2011\/09\/year-of-the-dragon.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"130\" height=\"139\" \/><\/a>I&#8217;m Chinese Year of the Dragon &#8212; we&#8217;re known for being fighters. But a fighter can become an advocate. And passion can fuel social action. Like a service dog who chases birds can become a surfer riding wind &amp; water&#8230; You just have to let go of attachment to what should be and look for what might be.<\/p>\n<p>Sure you can drive all the way to the store in the right lane, w\/out turning left. But it would be a lot simpler if you just let go. And changed lanes&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is, ostensibly, a dog story. Of a dog &#8212; Ricochet &#8212; who was born &amp; bred to be a service dog, but disappointed. And what happened afterwards&#8230; Buddhism talks about letting go. The opposite of letting go is attachment, which Lama Surya Das likens to &#8220;holding on tightly to something that is always slipping&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1234,11,1181,1187,197,1233,198],"class_list":["post-1758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","tag-attachment","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-lama-surya-das","tag-letting-go","tag-ricochet"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>what we&#039;re &#039;meant&#039; to be: a story of changing lanes ~ - Beginner&#039;s Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is, ostensibly, a dog story. Of a dog -- Ricochet -- who was born &amp; bred to be a service dog, but disappointed. And what happened afterwards...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/09\/what-were-meant-to-be-a-story-of-changing-lanes.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"what we&#039;re &#039;meant&#039; to be: a story of changing lanes ~ - Beginner&#039;s Heart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is, ostensibly, a dog story. Of a dog -- Ricochet -- who was born &amp; bred to be a service dog, but disappointed. 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