Our One Wild and Precious Life…

“It’s okay to be happy with a calm life.”

Unknown

“My job is killing me. I work all the time. If I don’t, I’ll get fired or dinged on my performance review. I need this job to support my family.”

“I am so tired, I cannot rest worrying about my kids.”

“I cannot turn off the news at night; what is this world coming to?”

Can you relate? What’s your story? What story do you tell yourself that interrupts the possibility of a calm life? What stands between you and a reasonable level of happiness?

What could you change about how you think and what you do that would reframe your perspective? Can you give yourself permission to create a reasonably happy, calm life for yourself?

I know habits may have to change; hard choices may need to be made. But, as Mary Oliver says, THIS IS OUR ONE WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE! Why would we waste it on chasing our tails? Or, metaphorically speaking, chasing our tales?

Gentle and Humble

In my quiet time, if I make it past the first sentence, which is not all that often to tell you the truth...there is more food for my soul.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30 NIV

We are resting, with purpose. It’s a thing! We rest because there is more to consider.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…

As I rest, I can learn. I have things that need learning. I am not in charge. But that’s more than ok, because Jesus has promised to walk beside me, yoked. The image is interesting. I close my eyes and imagine it. Jesus is the lead and properly yoked I can stay in alignment with him. I assume this means that days when I decide to be stubborn and stand my ground, Jesus might continue to walk and I will need to follow. The yoke provides me necessary limits - a safety measure for my stubborn tendencies to drift off course.

...for I am gentle and humble in heart…

Wherever he leads, whatever he teaches, it comes from a place of gentleness and humility. Yoked to him, this will need to be my value proposition too. Ok, I breathe. I can follow this way.

...and you will find rest for your souls.

Often my body is screaming so loud for what it wants, my soul’s quiet longing for what I truly need is drowned out. No matter what else I will learn from this God/Man, it will include rest for my soul. My tight chest loosens. My breath slows. My spirit calms.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Baby, you will never be asked to do the heavy lifting. That is a Jesus thing. May you find rest for your soul today; may your body cooperate with this refreshment!

Shifting Values

Core values compete and vie for our attention. The values we “bring up” and “highlight” will impact the way we think about our current situation. This is a good thing; we need this kind of flexibility, wisdom and discernment.

Early on in the pandemic Scott and I worked on the core value of safety/respite/calm. We chose topics to foster this attitude in most meetings whose content we had responsibility for. That was, count them, almost SEVEN months ago. We thought we would be in lockdown for a month. Maybe two. It didn’t turn out that way, did it?

Back then, safety and respite for all the anxiety and uncertainty seemed like a top priority. Folks were wondering how they could BEAR two weeks of staying at home, not getting a haircut, their nails done or eating at their favorite bar and grill. Others worried about keeping their home, not getting paid, figuring out how they were going to feed their kids or find childcare so they could work their essential jobs. I suspect that 7 months in, most of us have some of the same concerns.

If safety was our initial value, what values might we want to highlight after 7 months? Every person will need to decide this for themselves. Scott and I are still organizationally very concerned about safety, but we are also concerned about support. How do we shift our mindset from - hey, everybody hunker down and use your tools to survive a few weeks of weird living to - oh boy - what are we going to do to continue our recovery work as a community?

At first, we encouraged folks to not worry about productivity - survive! We said. Be kind to yourselves, maybe eat pizza and ice cream and read a good crime novel. Seven months in, our value needs to shift and priorities need to change. We know this because we observe and listen to the stories folks tell us. Things like how crazy it feels to see Facebook posts from people you thought you knew but realize their viewpoint is not only contradictory to yours, it is offensive. Or the hurt feelings that arise when various family members choose different positions on what constitutes responsible living in the age of covid-19. Or my goodness, the election.

So here goes, the seven month values shift. What if we refocus our attention on a slightly different value? We do not have to give up on our core value of safety (for self and others), but maybe we can add on to it? Tomorrow, we’ll talk about how to do that. For today, as often as you can, try to think of what you can do to please God. Something small. Something manageable. Something that involves glitter and glue - on paper, not in your cousin’s hair or Meme’s favorite sweats.