MEEKS: Be still and thankful
As I raced around this past weekend traveling to Comer for the board meeting at Jubilee Partners' refugee resettlement center, back to Atlanta for the C.G. Jung Society monthly lecture then a busy day Sunday with a visit to death row, church and a contemplative prayer group; I was imagining what a wonderful quiet day Monday was going to be. It is funny how the best laid plans can go astray.
Sunday night I when I checked my bank statement, I realized that someone had made an unauthorized charge with my debit card, which was in my wallet, and that it had almost caused my account to be overdrawn. So much for my quiet day on Monday. The day was spent speaking to merchants, my bank, police and others that you have to speak with after this type of thing happens.
In the beginning of the day I was getting somewhat aggravated, mostly because my wonderful plan was going by the wayside. And along with this, I was not doing anything that I wanted to be doing. Then a thought crossed my mind.
With this unexpected turn of events, today was giving me an opportunity to practice patience by practicing being willing to take the day as it comes. The notion of being still and accepting what a day brings is so foreign in our fast paced culture of busyness that continuously challenges us to do more and to do it quicker. The idea of simply embracing all of the ups and downs that come our way and to see them as opportunities instead of obstacles is not the most popular idea in our world.
Of course, we have schedules and we have things that have to be done and there are times when some of the unplanned things that happen cause us distress and even pain, but we have the chance to choose how we will respond to them. Paying attention to what is inside of our heads and hearts can help us in determining how we will act when our plans do not go as we had hoped
But, our culture does not offer us much reward for paying attention to our hearts. We are quick to label such work in negative ways because it is considered to be unproductive and because we have been thoroughly steeped in a good capitalist way of thinking, we are constantly counting up the dividends. Unfortunately, there are some aspects of life that do not lend themselves to being seen in that manner. While the inner work may not appear to yield much result in the short run, it is often when the tough times come that one can see the value of the time that has been spent trying to "be still" and listen to the small inner voices that can lead to thankfulness and peacefulness.
So my day improved considerably when I let go of my preconceived notion about what the day was to be and simply accepted the day that I was being given the opportunity to live. My sense of peace returned though I could not solve all of the problems surrounding my hacked bank account. That will take more than one day. But by simply accepting that the bank issue was one small part of a very large and wonderful block of time was a good reminder to have. It was also good to remember how many blessings I have to count.
Stopping for a few minutes in each day and taking a small inventory of our reasons for gratitude can aid the process of returning to a place of peace and rest. For most of us who live in America there is a good chance that we have a few things for which to be thankful. So be still and remember them. It can help to change the course of a day.
This column by Catherine Meeks, Ph.D., appears twice monthly. Meeks is also a contributing writer for the Huffington Post. Email her at kayma53@att.net.
This story was originally published October 20, 2015 at 10:20 PM with the headline "MEEKS: Be still and thankful ."