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Read
Installment 1 "Slipping Into Simplicity." A morning such as this can be disconcerting, disturbing, and even dangerous, because what inevitably happens is that you hurry to reach the end first. In other words, your attention gets fixated on the meeting rather than the moments that precede it. So, you don't enjoy breakfast, you don't really "see" your children's smiles, you don't remember what you made for lunch, you barely recall your phone conversations - all because the meeting you fear you'll miss has captured your focus. The danger in this kind of situation is that you really have 'lost' time - you have lost those moments that were between waking up and getting to the meeting. You have lost them because you have not been attentive to and aware of them. The late Donald Nicholl, a Roman Catholic lay theologian and professor, offered a compelling image for this: "You don't notice the small things if you are moving fast. Suppose the person you most love is in a railroad station and you are looking for one another. If she stands still and you pass through the station at 100 miles per hour, you will not find each other." If you are moving too quickly through your morning , you will miss the subtle moments of surprise and grace that are always present but often go unnoticed when we are not moving slowly and attentively enough to see them. A chaotic morning can leave you tied up in knots for the entire day if you try to move faster and faster. Instead, simply stop whatever you are doing for 3 minutes to notice what is going on around you. Your breath will slow and deepen and your chaotic morning has the chance of being redeemed. Time
Out In the complex and fast-paced culture of the 21st century, we often feel as though time is slipping through our fingers -- as if life is passing us by. The demands and expectations of a results-oriented, economically driven society require multi-tasking and long hours that leave us trying to fit the rest of our life into the squeezed minutes that can be secretly seized in this marketplace environment. Days off become times to snatch a quick glance at a newspaper at a local coffee bar before launching into the seemingly endless errands and responsibilities of daily life that have been put on hold the rest of the week. We long for more time in our day, more days in our week, more weeks in our year, more years in our life. We feel we are always running behind, or running to catch up, and we'd like to just run in place for awhile! Changing
Time A friend of mine who knows I travel extensively asked me recently how I deal with the change in time zones. My answer was immediate. "I do whatever is supposed to be done in the city where I've just landed. If it's time to eat dinner, but my body clock isn't hungry for dinner, I eat dinner anyway. I go to bed when the others go to bed and get up when they get up." This very simple exercise has been of immense help to me, surprisingly even on international flights. The same principle can be applied to the simplicity of time. What makes the minutes, days, and years of our life meaningful is not having more time or fewer activities. It is being attentive to 'now.' It is being present to the present. Being present to the present is, itself, a spiritual practice of great magnitude. It is a practice that nudges us to awareness, alertness and attention. It is aided by a desire to live the human life as fully and significantly as possible. There are numerous distractions and diversions that threaten our resolve to be present to the present, but the promise of the practice is that we will avoid coming to the end of our lives feeling as though we've never lived at all. The
Secret Beginning
a practice of being present to the present will awaken you to the contents
of your own heart. It will develop within you a desire to be alive each
moment in your life. It will bring you to the place where you recognize
that, although time itself cannot be sped up or halted, avoided or grasped,
it can be the canvas upon which you paint a creative life. To help you
in your practice, experiment with some of the following ideas: 2) Once each day, look up from whatever you are doing and 'peer very seriously into space.' Don't attempt to capture any images or ideas. Simply allow the images and ideas to move gently through you. 3) The next time you feel in a time crunch, stop what you are doing and for a full 2 minutes close your eyes and breathe slowly, noticing the tension in your body as you inhale and relaxing into your breath as you exhale. 4) Read Jesus' words from Matthew 6:25-34 and reflect on 'time' as it relates to the natural world (of which we are a part!). 5) Begin a daily practice of meditation that will provide your body and soul with a sense of freedom within the context and boundaries of time. 6) Over the next month reflect on the following questions: ·
If you had a day all to yourself, with no responsibilities, how would
you spend it? Read
Installment 4 "Simplicity of Activity."
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