WALLOWING

Gratitude is a very on trend topic these days.
Good for the heart physically, good for the emotions for sure.
There are so many reminders about it that I'm fascinated by the dominance of gratitude in books and magazines.
Is it a counter-balance to the horror of much of the world?
Is it the mantra of a materialistic culture--a way to calm our greed?  
Is it a spiritual discipline that we can all agree on?

A friend sent out a reminder of the need for a gratitude attitude when a friend of hers wrote about her kitchen in need of an update.  Regardless of the details, the point was to remind us to appreciate our kitchens just as they are--and everything else too.
So I share this prayer/poem from I PRAY ANYWAY--Devotions for the Ambivalent:

WALLOWING

Wallowing a bit
Not seeing all the good stuff
My life is full
Rich
Jam packed with learning
Creating,loving
Work, catastrophe too
Who could ask for anything more?
Well, just give me a minute!

MY SPIRITUAL REALITY SHOW #4

 

My teen-age God dry spell ended with falling in love

Age sixteen, radiant, brilliant, glowing falling in love

The world glistened

I was so full of gratitude, I re-opened my Bible

New Testament

Love, love, love

Everywhere

Jesus suddenly made sense to me

I had so much fullness, so easy to give, to be joyful

I read and discovered theology through

my now Seminarian brother

(yet another Christmas Eve ramification)

I quit going to church

(No boys needed now)

But I did nightly devotions and knew a very

Satisfying prayer experience

God was good again

I WANT TO RIGHT SIZE MY LIFE

I want to right size my life
Shed some stuff
Pare down daily irritations
Make larger the work that's mine to do
Gigantic energy to do it
A medium size ego to make it happen
Few but true friends
Less to heal
More to give
Gobs of living in the present

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES -------OR THE IMPROBABLITY PRINCIPLE?

A miracle is "an object of wonder, a welcome. surprising, extraordinary event
that can't be explained by science and is thought to have come from divine intervention".

Mostly, I don't care where a miracle comes from but I've had a few, seen a few. My response is to want to give thanks to a Higher Power/God that is beyond knowing so I must believe in this intervening awesome good.

I remember an affirmation that took me through a painful divorce and rupture of my family. "I expect a miracle today."  I don't know where the phrase came from but I hung on to it like a kid to candy. It kept me hopeful and looking for the miracle of the day. And they came--ten dollars in the mail right when I'd run out of money for the week, an invitation to a job interview without having ever applied for the job.  And later in life, living through a heart attack because I was in the right place at the right time. 

But my eye was caught by the title of this book.
I share it with you for the honesty of it, I think.
Maybe not every miracle is a miracle.
Thank goodness for those that are.

The Improbability Principle--why coincidence, miracles and rare events happen every day--By David J. Hand 

l. Law of Inevitability --something must happen

2. Law of Truly Large Numbers--given enough opportunities, unlikely things will happen

3. Law of Selection--we paint targets after the arrows have hit

4. Law of Near Enough--things that are sufficiently similar are treated as if they are identical

Food for thought.

I STRUGGLE WITH PRAYER

I struggle with prayer
But not with praying
Belief scares me
But not believing
Hope can sound so vapid
But hoping does not
Doubt seems immutable
Doubting not so much
Nouns are so rigid
Verbs keep on moving

joyce wilson-sanford