“He who is not busy living is busy dying” Bob Dylan
Sometimes it helps to look back to where it all started. We humans do something that no other living thing has the the ability to – complain and despair. Eventually it dawns on us that nothing changes as a result. You have probably heard of the idea of keeping a gratitude journal, an effective way to break this bad habit. A journal implies consistency, which produces habit.
For me, remembering that time when I awoke to the truth that I do a miserable job of running my own life. That realization required me to admit what none of us wants to – that however hard I may work at being a good person, I will always fail. No one has ever lived life without failure. Why? Because we are not wired for perfection, just for the longing for it. Is that a cruel joke of some kind? Not at all! It is the very element that causes humans to look Godward.
We are all just living dead before that moment when we decide to let the Divine live in us. Here is a poem I wrote about my awakening.
COME FORTH!
Head to toe bruised,
bones broken
yet walking!
Hidden sores
not yet healed.
Suddenly under the soaring
white of the
Spirit’s light
I am revealed
And am amazed.
So I really wasn’t
doing so well, I really
didn’t come through
strong and whole!
I really don’t know how
to entrust, to the
tender care of another,
my soul.
Why, and how,
have I
been walking around
like I’m all okay?
It’s time to set the clock back,
leap in the river,
fall upon the hem,
go the other way
And tear these
grave clothes off!
© Janet McDonald
