This Tuesday morning finds me feeling the Peace and Grace of God in ways that allow me to focus on the tasks at hand in the midst of a storm of controversy at the outer perimeters of my life. I have waited a lifetime to learn how to do this.
Growing up in an incredibly dysfunctional home, I was always thoroughly distracted by the sturm und drang of people around me who were just miserable and had no hesitancy to either show it or project it onto me, or share it in violent and demeaning ways.
Yet now, finally, in 2013, I am in the middle of a bunch of people who are having an angry, violent time and I am just smooth sailing. Ah me! I am so happy to have learned this skill.
It is an internal skill. It takes the renewing of your mind of the things of God that are eternal and deep and meaningful in a larger perspective. It is a skill that requires one to carefully stay connected to the external. One must also stay connected to one's emotions and physical state.
I've turned the heat off for Spring and Summer and the little bit of chill to the air helps me stay just a bit more alert. I've made some chicken soup ...homemade...and the matzo meal is in the fridge ready to be made into balls to drop into the delicious liquid that this time will be better because a friend, a very good cook who happens to be a 'y' chromosome ...male...gave me the tip of sauteing my veggies before I add them to the liquid. He also told me tarragon is the spice of choice.
Additionally for the first time I can involve myself in creative and technical aspects of writing all the while knowing there is this tornado of anger in the center of others.
I have done this. I have translated the skills I use everyday with infants, children, tweens and teens ...for adults! Yea! Hallelujah!! Freedom to 'be' under and in any circumstance!!!
One of my clients asked me what maturity is. It is this, as I have always shared, 'to feel one way and act another'. But this today I can also pass on. The definition of 'healed' is to keep your peace, maintain it, enjoy it and walk in it, while others are gnashing teeth and filled with heated emotions.
Well... I think that merits a 'Praise God'! For another time...how I got there :)
Love,
Deborah
About Me
- The Social Contemplative
- What does it mean to be a social contemplative? A person who has spent a lot of time reflecting on a very busy life with diverse experiences that have , in spite of herself, yielded a lot of wisdom she wishes to pass on to others. Deborah loves people but recharges her batteries alone. Sitting in the presence of her own life is mandatory. Reflection and centering happen in the midst of the whirl of a populated world. Born on the East Coast, living all her adult life on the West Coast she is a hybrid of cultures. She is a mom, a writer, and a teacher who sings, reads and swims for fun. And yes she is ordained, but don’t hold that against her. She believes we are more than conquerors and most days there’s a smile on her face because she deals with life in real time. She’s a whole lot funnier than this description makes her sound. Lastly, it’s important to know she’s a paper and pencil gal in a digital world.
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