OK. It is now Thursday afternoon. About an hour ago I discovered that AOL had just ‘lost’ 800 emails. This is a problem. I need some of those to do my work. What to do?
- Remind myself that anger will do me no good
- Remind myself to change email vendors
- Remind myself that it is only email and not food/air/water/safety/housing
- Remind myself that I spend too much time in front of this screen
- Remind myself to call my computer guru
- Compose “An Ode to Fallen Emails” …probably in E minor
- Pray
- Keep repeating “I will not take this out on my choir members!”
- Purchase “Dummies Guide to the World of the Internet”
- Love life anyway
I was recently reading Jim Francek’s book Building Personal Resiliency. Great read. One of the suggestions he lists for being resilient is to re-connect:
- to one’s inner self (what strengths do I have to work through this predicament);
- to one’s friends and support system (sometimes verbalizing it to someone else begins to lighten the load);
- to one’s role models/mentors/sources of inspiration (knowing what someone else might do can be the beginning of a solution);
- to stories of others who have risen to a challenge.
I know it may sound a bit trite to say “trust the Great Mystery,” and yet there is truth in it. Things happen. When the mind doesn’t understand or when things happen that are not in our control, we don’t need to go into crisis mode. Not to be naïve about it, but there are times when we accept what is before us and Life goes on, knowing that the intellect doesn’t need to know the reason for everything.
This week someone gave me a flyer with a picture of Charlie Brown leaning against a wall, coffee mug in hand. The caption reads: “Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can….and music to accept the things I can’t.”
May your life have all the music you need to meet all of your challenges!
– Rev. Ed