Monday, February 10, 2014

Stillness

Oh crap. This morning's topic, the one I woke up with, was stillness: how to incorporate it into my over-committed life. How to stretch my morning prayer,  find the quiet inside it, wrap it up and carry it into my day.  How to hone my focus to the one thing I must do in the moment, and not on the task list which has grown long enough to strangle me. The still point at the center of the maelstrom.

Such a lovely notion it was, and so into it I was, that it crossed my mind to take notes, write down my lovely thoughts about a lovely notion.

Then, just as I was about to write those thoughts, a message from Patti appeared on my screen: "No post today! Katy, are you up?"

Crap. I'd forgotten it was my turn.

So I guess I'll let you in on those lovely notes I was about to take. You know, the ones about being still, calm, in control. Of my overcommitted life.

It's a new situation for me. The work I do, at a resource center where we create events and workshops to support families, where people drop in with their overstressed lives, and we help them find solutions, has taught me so much, and given me connections with so many great people, that I see the way forward to change things. Other things in the community that need changing. Heady stuff. So I say yes. And then, yes. Then again, yes.

That's part of it, anyway. Add to that family commitments and commitments made before life got so busy,  and the task list wraps around and around and starts to squeeze.

So my thoughts of the morning:

The task list must be tamed. I can't do 47 things in one day. I have to decide what things won't get done, before messages start to appear informing me, for instance, of a forgotten blog post.

Some tasks must be dropped or postponed.

No matter how many things are on my task list, I can only do one at a time. So at any given moment, that one thing is all I need concern myself about.

There must be empty space on the schedule. Sometimes the one thing is to clear the mess, stretch the tense muscles, read, drift, stop.

The morning must start with prayer. And not the laundry list kind of prayer so much as the listening kind. I am not always right about what must be done. The universe was created, and is sustained by Love itself. There is a bigger picture that I don't see, that is untouched by my accomplishments, unfazed by my failures. I have this moment, and He is in it.

4 comments:

Latayne C Scott said...

What a peaceful and lovely post, Katy. Thank you!

Megan Sayer said...

Yes. I read this the very first thing this morning, before my own day got all busy and task-focused and full, and it was exactly the right thing. Thanks Katy.
(and I giggled that you started it by saying "Oh crap", and I wondered if Latayne would be cross. Hahaha. She doesn't appear to be :) Although if she is you can tell her bugrit...lol!!)

Latayne C Scott said...

Who could ever be cross with Katy? Especially when she uses my favorite quasi-curse word?

Henrietta Frankensee said...

Have you heard of the book, Too Busy Not to Pray?
I am learning to be a human being, not a human doing. The latter species is a worldly creation, the former is the one that leans closer and more deeply into heaven every day.
The insight from my quiet time this morning? I love String Theory. As a musician the thought that the physical world (and who knows, maybe the spiritual world too) is made of vibrating strings is exhilarating and gratifying. I imagine God tuning the orchestra but He is more intimate than that. If He exists in the space/time continuum where the vibrations are set and seeks to be one with us then His 'STRINGS' wrap themselves around ours and we vibrate at the same frequency.
We have to be vewy, vewy quiet to hear, listen with all our being, block out all the world's bellow in order to hear the MUSIC.