|
Today's
Meditation:
As I understand what Christiane is saying, we don't
recognize the many, many simple joys of our lives because
we focus so strongly on the few problems that are in our
lives. We may have fifty things to be thankful for
within our vision right now, but we can't really see them
because we're so caught up with the money problem or the
relationship problem or the work problem. We seem to
spend so much time focusing on the things that are going
wrong that we give the things that are going right short
shrift. The squeaky wheel really does get the oil,
doesn't it?
I wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn't had
this tendency so strongly. I've been fortunate
enough over the years to leave the habit behind, but in my early years I could go days without appreciating or
being grateful for anything at all. Of course, those
were days when depression was playing its awful games with
me, but sometimes I think that I sure would like to have
them back-- minus the depression, of course. I have
to think, though, that the depression might not have been
so bad if I had learned to pay attention to the
"forest of simple joys" instead of keeping my
mind attached to the depression.
It does take effort to keep our eyes on the
blessings. When my wife and I had to foreclose on our house, we
made a great effort to make sure that we didn't let the
situation get us down, and we kept reminding each other of
the things that were going well, the things that we still
had. When I was laid off, I did my best to keep my
mind on the blessings in my life, and the potential I had
for improving my situation. It wasn't always easy,
but the effort always was worth it, and the situation
never really did get me down because of what I've learned
about focusing on the blessings instead of the problems.
We all have problems. Many of them are horribly
difficult to bear, and they never should be dismissed as
unimportant. But even as we deal with them, we can
keep in mind the many simple joys that we all have in our
lives-- and those simple joys can keep us in a state of
balance instead of a state of unbalance.
|
