Keeping a plan made weeks ago, a friend and I met at a hidden jewel of a Japanese style garden for a hot tub soak.. After a week of life, death and taxes in America, it seemed so self indulgent. We sat together for an hour in a small enclosure shaded by an arbor and adorned with several orchids. The jasmine blooming on the other side of the fence was fragrant in the warmth. We quietly shared cares and concerns as tension and muscular knots melted away. Stress lowered as steam rose.
In the glaring news reports of lives forever changed by bombs in Boston and a factory explosion in Texas, our personal struggles take on new perspective.
I have to step back from the constant stream of details and heartache. Weeping all day doesn't serve the victims or those searching out the perpetrators of such evil.
Certainly a prayer is worthy but especially choosing to live each hour more mindfully.
Some thoughts are worth considering as we deal with our problems this week.
Is this a problem I can fix or should I walk away from?
Will I even remember this argument or situation in five years?
Do I want to be right or do I want to be happy?
Are these the last words I would want someone to hear from me?
So much pales in comparison to a child not finishing her homework suddenly losing a leg. A poor grade in math doesn't matter when the concern is will she walk, run or be able to dance. A man who can't be bothered to pick up his socks will never be coming home from work again.
Every day is a gift, an experience not to be missed by constant distractions. The natural inclination is to focus on what needs to be done rather that what is complete.
In the book ONE THOUSAND GIFTS, author Ann Voskamp reveals her personal struggle to reconcile the death of a child, man's inhumanity, maintaining faith in God, with living up to her name which means "full of grace". As a wife of a farmer and mother to a brood of children with a never ending to do list, Ann begins another list of one thousand gifts to be grateful for. She empties herself to live a full life rich in communion with people, nature and divinity. Some paragraphs are pure poetry.
When I begin spinning with stress over my COBRA running out in a few months, starting over in a new career, one more doctor visit for a partner facing surgery, I bring myself back to center by focusing on " in this moment......." Take a deep breath. In this moment I sit with a hot cup of coffee. Sip and savor. In this moment my children are well. In this moment I have everything essential to life. In this moment I can make a very long list of things to be grateful for.
In this moment, I am glad that I can get up to my neck in hot water, literally.
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