Maybe an interesting title, maybe not. Carving out the time to see yourself. Carving out the time to know your place in the world. Carving out the time to be with your God as you understand a god. Walking in nature even if within the crowded city. Sleeping in. Taking a nap. Walking for more than an hour, really anywhere.
What do you do to carve out the time? It is vital and we always need reminders.
Happy Carving !!
Who are these people? Just how deep runs the us and them dynamic? Yes, The United States is in the middle of a very confusing and bewildering election. I feel that many have simply given up on any concept of cooperation. We are sheltering in place with our own kind. It is just too overwhelming. How do we emerge from our cocoons or will we ever be able to emerge?
Aren’t we all really just looking for safety? Should we stop and compare our lives to those in places like Syria where war has torn everything asunder? Why are we fighting this war of ideas and opinions? I am right and you are wrong. How can I even consider that you are right when your belief threatens my very existence as a human being on this planet. More often than not, the threat is very real. Much more often.
How can I talk about race when I know so few people who are different than me? How can I learn about LGBT lives when I don’t think that I have ever met anyone from that community? If you are a Christian fundamentalist, I cannot have anything to do with you because it is too threatening to my identity. Do you care about my identity? Is it your sole (soul’s) intention to threaten my identity? Do you really want me to disappear from the planet?
Black/white, gay/straight, right/left. Over and over again. The individual elements of the great melting pot have separated themselves from the whole.
Can we just stop? What if everything were to just stop for a day? No news, no blog posts, no activity on any social media platforms. Would it cause everyone to just take a deep breath and reboot? It is as if we are compulsively heading to our own extinction without thinking that we can do anything to stop it. It almost sounds like addiction, doesn’t it? Just looking at the increase in verifiable addictions such as the opioid epidemic makes one wonder if therein lies a clue. A simple definition of addiction as defined by Merriam-Webster is “an unusually great interest in something or a need to do or have something.”
How many times are we faced with a situation that seems so overwhelming that all we have to offer is fear? Perhaps a friend is making decisions that seem strange or unfamiliar to us. Or perhaps there is illness in our family. Any of life’s situations can bring us into this overwhelming state of fear.
The challenge is to sit with the fear, accept it, let it overwhelm you, but without immediate action. My guess is that the fear will turn into prayer for the person or situation.
The calm of prayer will replace the anxiety of the fear.
I had tea yesterday with a cherished long time friend. She introduced me to this wonderful tea shop. As we were sitting there catching up over our pot of tea I was experiencing so many different levels of our fellowship. The tea was wonderful and it reminded me of the calm that is so lacking in our everyday busyness. The tea brings you down, but in a very good way. The taste and the smoothness, the aroma. The subtlety of the small tea cups and the small portion of tea. The “just right” temperature of the water and the “just right” steeping time.
Do we long for “just right”? Can we find that place in our soul that is “just right”? I often see that place as water finding its level. Still water that is disturbed slightly will find its level relatively quickly. In contrast, the oceans after a hurricane are disturbed for a much longer time. We may have to walk through a lot of pain and discomfort to find the “just right” place, but it is there to be found. Pray for patience and perseverance.
I have given up.
They will never see the truth.
Can you see the truth?
Can you see the truth if you don’t live the truth?
You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
What does that really mean?
My Labyrinth Journey 