The Gift of Renewed Perspective

I go in and out with a daily examen practice; when I use it, I discover both small and sometimes large things about myself. I realize that the small things can make the biggest difference in my daily life satisfaction.

I often take a late afternoon break and go through the drive in of my local Starbucks. Each day I ask the server to “not give me one of those plastic green stoppers” as I am trying to do my small part to keep plastic from overwhelming the world. Every single time - I get the stopper! My sweet and kind baristas are unconsciously providing those stoppers and no matter how many times I ask to not use them, they shove them down into the top. In the beginning of my attempts to be a bit kinder to the universe, this irritated me.

I would not have noticed my growing habitual attachment to a side order of irritation with my latte unless I were practicing the daily examen. It kept showing up in my daily review - and I did not like what I saw. I don’t want to be the girl with the scowl on her face every time a kind, underpaid but overly solicitous person gives me a cup of hot steamy coffee that I did not have to make for myself. The daily examen gave me the gift of a renewed perspective, one that eventually taught me how to find these small exchanges delightful.

I started by trying to practice gratitude over this small, insignificant matter. It became my own inside joke. Ask for no stopper; get the stopper anyway. This is an indication of a well-trained staffer. These stoppers may add to plastic pollution, but they also decrease the chance that I will spill my cup of joe.

Several months in, and I asked for no stopper - and got no stopper! This delighted me too. It turns out that gratitude muscles can be strengthened. I moved from having an expectation to living out of my highest value priority - appreciating others.

What pattern are you noticing in your own life that does not fit your core values? If this is not obvious, maybe adding a daily examen will be a practice worth trying.

Putting the Serenity Prayer into Action!

The Serenity Prayer is often used in meeting rooms of various mutual aid societies. It can help remind us of what is ours to do and NOT to do:

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 hardship 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

So often we spend our lives spitting into the wind, trying to change things that we do not have the power, responsibility, or even wisdom to alter. It takes wisdom to figure out what is ours to do!

Many of us are burdened by our attachment to the past; others are so future focused they trip over today. But today is what we are given, with moments on most days that we can enjoy. Focused on the present, in order to be awake and alert, we grapple with the reality that days do come with hardships. Hardships are not avoidable. They offer a pathway to peace.

Acceptance and trust. Reasonable joy. Amen