Choices: Better and Best #2

Years ago when I became acquainted with the idea that I could move beyond choices between good and bad to choices between better and best, I hoped that I would some day have that problem. I finally am there, in a place where I have wonderful choices on a regular basis.

I have discovered the need to ask myself a series of questions before leaping into the next adventure.

Do I have the energy to enjoy this?
What else do I need to let go of for this to work?

Until I find a way to live that allows me to have several concurrent lives, I often have to choose between outstanding options. How to do this? Sometimes it is easy because my energy for one activity is so high. Often I need to talk it out with a trusted listener and somehow my inner sense of the next steps is always revealed.

May you too live a life that offers delightful options in such abundance that you have to choose between better and best.

Ideas that Inspire # 5

Some inspiring words from Thomas Merton for all times of the year but especially in the summer.

"The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation with violence. The frenzy of the activist neutralizes his work for peace. It destroys her own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of his own work because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful."

Maintaining inner peace requires saying "No" sometimes.

Peace,
Cruger

Choosing Between Better and Best

A friend shared yesterday an exercise she learned with a tape measure. You ask yourself, "How old do I think I will be when I am no longer able to do those things I most love?" Then using each inch on the tape measure to represent a year of your life, figure out visually where you are now, how much of your life is behind you and how much time you have left. My friend was surprised and a bit disturbed. Try it for yourself.

I have always had a pressing sense that death could be just around the corner, i.e. every sharp headache that persisted could be the final harbinger of my demise, etc. This trait has most certainly been an ordeal for those closest to me. However for me, it has added a sense of urgency to my desire to live more fully, with maximum awareness and kindness.

Is there more routine than meaning in our days? We all need to examine what gives our life meaning/joy and find ways to increase time for those pursuits. Life is always to short for anything less.

Blessings-