Be You Very Well

Here’s a reminder that some of us can never hear too often–and her approach can be tailored to whatever type of work you do.

http://pathofpossibility.com/2011/09/16/secure-your-own-mask-before-assisting-others/

I particularly appreciate her comments about defining our own terms instead of making assumptions and taking a cookie cutter approach to our lives. Additionally, I second her advice to look for what energizes vs drains you so that you can get rid of your energy leaks and maintain a steady flow of oxygen to your life. I want to point out that this is something that may involve an ongoing process instead of just a one-time inventory and single tweaking.

Just as hikers’ breathing needs are different from those of us on more level terrain, what we’ll need will fluctuate as our lives’ demands upon us change over time. Hikers have to breathe deeper and more often to get enough oxygen going through their muscles because each breath contains less oxygen and likewise there will be times in our lives when this is also the case for us. The bottom line is that when we get what we need for optimal functioning first then those around us get a better version of us than they do when they get an oxygen-deprived version of us. Been there, done that. Just this weekend, in fact (sigh). Time to adjust my oxygen mask…

It is God to whom and with whom we travel, and while He is the end of our journey, He is also at every stopping point.

Elisabeth Elliot

And because that is so true, to quote from Spider Man 3, “You know, I guess one person can make a difference. ‘Nuff said.”

There. ‘Nuff said.

Here’s another thing from Thomas Merton that has really stuck with me. I am a long way from putting it into perpetual practice but I think I’m beginning to appreciate the concept more and more. On days like today has been I especially need to remember it!

When we have a simple intention, we are less occupied with the thing to be done. We do all that we do not only for God but so to speak in Him. We are more aware of Him who works in us than of ourselves or of our work.

Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island

BTW, while checking my facts about this quote online I ran across the following post that does a lovely job of further explaining, in layman’s terms, what a simple intention might look like in practice. Enjoy!

http://www.conversiondiary.com/2010/11/right-intention-vs-simple-intention.html

Today I was blessed with household help of various sorts: cleaning, organizing, and (by the latter) help with the uncluttering process. Letting go of pieces of paper or various resources as well as ideas about what tasks I should be doing for our household has been a learning process for me. Actually, it continues to be! Anyway, we live in the smallest house of our family’s history and yet there is room for what matters. Additionally, my health issues are more complicated than ever before and yet I believe my spirit is healthier.

One of my newer companions for this unclutterer’s journey is Thomas Merton. Thomas understood things that are difficult to understand (which is no doubt why before this year I had no incentive to read him, because he seemed too esoteric for my simple tastes). Thomas also struggled with the things he didn’t understand but, I believe, to the best of his ability he didn’t let that struggle become mental clutter. He wrote out a great deal of his struggling and perhaps that helped keep him uncluttered. Regardless, he kept fighting the good fight to keep his relationship with God and his fellow-man uncluttered.

Thomas kept the faith in a more uncluttered manner than most of us can manage–as that of a contemplative monk–and in combining his gift for writing with his vocation has helped many of us living out our lives (albeit in a different sort of community) to be less cluttered in our own faith. After all, we share in common with him what was at the core of his vocation: loving God by loving those in our community, whatever that looks like. The thing I find wonderfully intentional about Thomas was that he was not worried about accomplishment in his community (or, for that matter, in the writing community either). Instead of being focused on results he chose instead to focus on the process, to be who God had called him to be in this life as the best preparation for the next. As a result, I think Thomas was able to be the remarkable person that he was because of his commitment to live intentionally and leave the results in God’s hands.

For each one of us has some kind of vocation. We are all called by God to share in His life and in His Kingdom….For each one of us, there is only one thing necessary: to fulfill our own destiny, according to God’s will, to be what God wants us to be.…

Why do we waste our time doing things which, if we only stopped to think about them, are just the opposite of what we are made for?

We cannot be ourselves unless we know ourselves. But self-knowledge is impossible when thoughtless and automatic activity keeps our souls in confusion. In order to know ourselves it is not necessary to cease all activity in order to think about ourselves. That would be useless, and would probably do most of us a great deal of harm But we have to cut down our activity to the point where we can think calmly and reasonably about our actions.

We cannot begin to know ourselves until we can begin to see the real reasons why we do the things we do the things we do, and we cannot be ourselves until our actions correspond to our intentions, and our intentions are appropriate to our situation. But that is enough. It is not necessary that we succeed in everything. A man can be perfect and still reap no fruit from his work and it may happen that a man who is able to accomplish very little is much more of a person than another who seems to accomplish very much.

Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island

I just saw this and wanted to share it in honor of all those who died, were injured, or experienced loss of one sort of another through the events of 9/11 and their aftermath. The comic strip B.C. captures this somber anniversary with a poignant piece of poetry. Its tribute is in the first column, second row.

http://cartoonistsremember911.com/

For those gone, may they rest in peace; for those who remain, may the peace of Christ be with you.

Quit Fighting: Out of Surrender Comes Strength

These are words that accompany a wonderful visual representation of The Loss Cycle. Just when I thought I was getting the hang of living with my latest chronic health issue and its attendant challenges I found myself adrift in the sea of loss (aka the grief cycle). Yikes! I thought I had dealt with that earlier this year when I learned what was actually going on in the mental health department that had previously been obscured by what looked like known chronic health issues taking their toll on an aging body–especially my poor brain. So I spewed my concerns to a Very Helpful Person who I see on a regular basis.

My mind was gratefully put at ease by learning that coming to grips with loss isn’t a one-time process and then you’re done, thank-you-very-much, as I had erroneously believed. Additionally, at the bottom of the chart–which, BTW, is subtitled The Normal Cycle for All Losses (something I found comforting even for someone who believes that “The Trouble with Normal is It Always Gets Worse”)–was that eye-opening concept that I might have to quit fighting, which, thankfully, isn’t the same thing as discontinuing to follow the extraordinarily helpful advice to “keep showing up,” or I would be more than ordinarily perplexed about the state of things.

So the remarkable thing–yes, I’m eventually getting around to it–is that yesterday I apparently quit fighting. I say apparently because it wasn’t premeditated. Yet while at the dashboard for my son’s blog I saw the named-but-never-posted-upon blog I created five years ago. Yep. Five years. Five years of fear, feeling it had to be perfect or it wasn’t worth doing. During those years life had first gotten harder from the outside and then it got harder from the inside. Ultimately I was only fighting myself. So the next thing I know I’ve created a new blog and instead of keeping that draft I just wrote from where I am today. And so here I am. It feels good not to be fighting anymore. At least not today, anyway!

Who knows? Maybe those words from the Serenity Prayer are finally beginning to penetrate my cerebral cortex? I can only hope and pray that I will continue to “keep on keeping” on as I learn how to live with the person I am, not the person I used to be or the person I wish I was but the person I am, the person God created me to be.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

Reinhold Niebuhr

“Be who you are, and be that well.”
St Francis de Sales 

That’s why I’m here: God wants me to be me and He wants me to be me well. As I’m journeying along this road called Life I’m learning a lot more than I ever dreamed I would need (or want) to know about what being me involves. So now I am going to blog about it in case what I’m learning can help anyone else out there who is interested in being their own self very well. For the record, up until this year I’d say that as an unrepentant bibliophile I lived to read and learn but now I’m reading (among other things) in order to learn to live. We’ll see where this takes me; perhaps you’d like to come along for the ride? You’re welcome any time!