Learning to Look Up...Daily

How long does it take to change?

What does it take to create a new daily routine?

Perhaps it depends on

focused concentration,

a degree of desperation,

and continuation of a new pattern despite inconveniences and obstacles.

Daily nourishment requires daily renewal.

Somehow suffering is in the mix as well.

At some point we assess

whether our health will suffer more through the effort of change,

or whether our health will suffer more without the change.

Daily nourishment requires the renewing of daily commitment.

The Health Needs we have as humans are interwoven and synergistic:

Physical health,

Mental/Emotional health,

Social health,

Cognitive health,

and Spiritual health.

The "four tires" of our Physical health require daily attention and intention:

Nutrition, Hydration, Activity and Rest.

But daily attention and intention are required in each area of health

to ensure our growth, healing and wholeness.

I admit...I was nourishing my soul, but I needed daily commitment

to truly experience growth, healing and wholeness.

No more excuses.

So I asked for it. I prayed for direction to enhance my Spiritual growth,

the growth of my soul.

And be careful what you pray for.

Wait in expectation for your most fervent prayers to be answered

in ways you may not understand.

A diagnosis requiring repair and radiation

was just what The Great Physician ordered.

Radiation was a gift,

necessitating darkness,

requiring time,

involving silence,

demanding stillness (no movement allowed).

During those eight weeks,

lying in darkness each morning,

staring straight up at the ceiling

was the gleam of neon green cross-beams.

Yes.

A neon green Cross was shining above me in the ceiling.

Closing my eyes, I can still see it.

It is imprinted, emblazoned in my mind,

illuminating the dark.

Looking up,

staring at the Cross above every morning for eight weeks

enabled a yielding

and a recognition of the utter beauty of the situation.

It was the invitation to finally slow and be still

and recognize that I could make the time.

A frustrating and inconvenient new routine

allowed me to see a new way of being.

Now I seek it,

hunger for it,

am lost without it,

am incomplete without contemplating the Cross every morning.

And even if the way is small, it Will. Be. Done.

Through Words of Scripture. Love. Connection. Remembrance.

Gratitudes. Repentance. Redemption. Silence.

God re-makes and renews us daily,

Healing us,

Making us Whole,

Moving us to Holy.

Our failing physical bodies

give greater time and space

to the awareness of the need for nourishment

of that which will live beyond this life.

What will finally get our attention?

Everything becomes more precious

when we recognize that we can lose it.

Everyone becomes more precious

when we recognize that we can lose them.

Every breath becomes more precious

when something takes our breath away.

Suffering in small ways and in large ways

in all ways

Always

changes us.

How can we hold each other through the sufferings of life

(because change and growth require pain!)

and allow ourselves to be held by God and by others?

Will we yield to this slow and uncomfortable unfolding

as an opportunity for growth, healing and wholeness?

Can we trust that after discomforts,

after trials,

after suffering,

we can be stronger?

We can be settled and at peace?

May the God of all grace,

who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus,

after you have suffered a while,

perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you. 1 Peter 5:10

I'm a believer.

Seek for Yourself. And be held along the Way.