As we attempt to be mindful of our spiritual and mental and physical health, we need to remember…
That we don’t have to fix everything. Nor should we.
That we don’t have to prevent everything. Nor can we.
That we don’t have to make sense of something,
or at least attempt to, before we give ourselves permission to relax.
We do not have to come up with a plan of attack, we do not have to batten down the hatches, and we do not have to keep awake at night standing guard.
It is, simply, not our place.
When we are truly being mindful, and paying attention to our thoughts, to the way our bodies feel, to our spirits’ peace – or lack of peace, then wisdom is allowed to creep in and sticks around awhile until it is noticed, and noticed again, and noticed yet another time. Our fretting minds are so counterproductive on many levels, and it is most definitely an unfriendly way of treating ourselves.
This excerpt serves to help me in my quest to make friends with my mind once again, or, even, for the first time. Father Richard Rohr asks what might a joyful mind be? He answers:
“When your mind does not need to be right.
When you can live in contentment with whatever the moment offers.
When your mind does not need to be in charge but can serve the moment
with gracious and affirming information.
When your mind can stop judging and critiquing itself.
When your mind does not need the future to be better than today.
When your mind can surrender to what is.
When your mind can live satisfied without resolution or closure.
When your mind can find truth on both sides.
When you can observe your mind contracting into self-preservation
or validation and then laugh or weep over it.
When you can find God in all things.”
Thank You, gracious God, for such revelations of peace.
…. for I have l learned to be satisfied with what I have. I know what it is to be in need and what it is to have more than enough. I have learned this secret, so that anywhere, at any time, I am content, whether I am full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little. I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me. Philippians 4
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