Changes

Life seems to be about change every day.

Some days I can go with the flow and allow the changes to be absorbed into my plans and most of the time, I look back and I like what I see. Yet, other times I look around and see the changes that happen, and I wonder ... what is going on here, what was I thinking, was I sleeping when that happened?

Other days I resist the changes and insist on the original plan to go right on track ... which can cause frustration or can cause me to appear stubborn. Yet, if 'I know that I know' the change shouldn't happen, how can I go along with it? I look back at those days with mixed reviews also ... sometimes it was good that I stood my ground, other times I realize my reasons for not changing weren't justified and I was just being stubborn.

So ... where is the balance?

I can't just lay down and allow all changes to happen ... I need to be aware and process my choices before I decide to go with them or not. Since I believe in the one and only God ... taking time to talk to him needs to be a part of my process ... after all He is the source of wisdom.

As I wrote that I realize that someone else struggled with the same problem a few decades ago and he penned a excellent prayer for his dilemma ...

God grant me the serenity to accept the things

I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
- Reinhold Niebuhr

"I Should"

Being organized is not a skill I was born with and it was not part of my environment while I was growing up. But over the years, I have wanted to be organized, efficient and on-time.
A few years ago, it hit me that if I do whatever it is that needs doing as soon as I think or hear myself say, "I should ...." then I get more done. I have also (gently) told my husband the same when he is procrastinating.
Today I read the quote below in a motivational email ... guess I was onto something.

"One of the best places to start to turn your life around is by doing whatever appears on your mental ‘I should’ list." -- Jim Rohn

Purpose versus Being Alive

Our purpose, my purpose, your purpose ... there has been many conversations about purpose over the past few years. For the most part, they have been good conversations; they have helped me look beyond myself and beyond today. I find comfort in the fact that my life has meaning, that there is a design and a plan for this crazy, messy life. The part I can get bogged down in, is finding that purpose. For sometime, I was looking for a magic formula, or a certain event, person or cause that would yell 'purpose' to me. Lately, I realize I have been trying to find my purpose by going the wrong way down a one-way street.

I started looking at it differently after reading this quote by theologian Howard Thurman ... "Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.” I had thought when I find my purpose then I would really come alive and find fulfillment in life ... but instead I need to come alive and then my life will be a life of purpose.

So, the focus shifted from finding my purpose (heavy and somber) to living life fully alive (energy and fun). I need to know me, to know what makes me come alive. I didn't create myself, but I was created by the One that created all things, so that is the place to start. The maker knows me better than I know myself, so I need to have ongoing conversations with him. I also need to give myself time to reflect on life, to understand fully what makes me be alive. I need to be willing to ... Be still and listen deeply for the truth that is carried on its winds - information about the past, wisdom about the present, and direction for the future. - Elizabeth Lesser

Each of us is different and what makes us fully alive will be as varied as the hues of color in the sky. The one area that is consistent with each of us is that to feel fully alive we need to “love the Lord God with all your passion, prayer, intelligence and energy and love others as well as you love yourself.”- Jesus