Don’t Wait!

Tags

A Light Grasp on Life, action, Alan Cohen, face, grace, problem, procrastination, readiness, signs, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, warnings

I recently heard that procrastination can become an addiction. I was rather surprised at that designation but have since pondered it as I make my daily lists and check at the end of the day or week to see what has fallen through the cracks of time and why. I can sometimes put the blame on unexpected events or lack of sleep the night(s) before the list was made but have added this practice of awareness to my desire for conscious living in the everyday. The challenge is to be responsible without becoming rigid so I try to remember a favorite book title of long ago:  A Light Grasp on Life.

My thoughts above were occasioned by two things:

1. Tomorrow I leave for an out-of-state family wedding so I need to ramp up my readiness quotient and get busy with all the tasks that need to be completed including what needs to be taken along for the ride. (That list will include my computer but there’s no telling whether or how often there will be another blog entry before next Tuesday.)

2. Earlier this morning I read the following reflection by Alan Cohen that started me thinking about the deeper side of procrastination. He was speaking of an electrical problem in his laundry room that he waited almost too long to attend to.  His words seemed an appropriate conclusion for this “thought for the day” in any situation that we might be tempted to “put off until tomorrow.”

When something in our life is malfunctioning, we receive signs, warnings…In life too, we cannot afford to keep overriding the breakers. We must heed the breaker’s warning and go to the source of the problem rather than simply treating the symptom. Instead of taking an aspirin for a headache, we need to face who or what is giving us a headache and deal with the problem at its source. Keep your antennae up for signals. Take the grace and then take action. (A Deep Breath of Life.)

 

 

 

 

 

The Face In the Mirror

Tags

Black Friday, defend, face, God, healing, mirror, prayer, psalm 84, smile, Thanksgiving, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Psalm 84 is a wonderful reminder of God’s care. It’s the one that tells us that even a swallow finds a home in God’s house. Today as I was reading one of my favorite translations of the psalm, I was stopped at verses 7 and 8. Here’s what they said:

Lord God of everything that is, God of my heart, listen to this humble prayer. Defend me now by simply looking at my face. Your look will be for me a healing oil that covers all.

Reading that, I thought of two things I have often heard from a friend whose motivational workshops often included two things, one a statement and the other a question. People need to get in touch with their faces, she says. I used to think of that on the rare occasions when I preached at liturgy. Looking out on the sea of faces in front of me, I was often tempted to shout out, “WAKE UP!” or “SMILE!” (We are very serious or sometimes readying ourselves for the “same old same old” there.) Her question was more direct. When you get up in the morning and look in the mirror to comb your hair or while brushing your teeth, she asks, how many of you smile and say, “What a woman (or guy)!” The audience usually laughs (I know; I’ve tried it.) and then she asks why that sounds funny. We really need to do a better job accepting the image of ourselves that we see in the mirror. We should try to look as if it were God looking back at us. If that is scary, then it’s time to re-read psalm 84 aloud to ourselves and re-assess our image of God.

We just celebrated Thanksgiving and I wonder how many of our reasons for giving thanks included gratitude for ourselves – for who we have become and are becoming. Black Friday is in full-swing by now. Maybe we should buy a little willingness to accept the joy of God’s face looking back at us from the mirror.