On Burdens, Strength, and Balance
No, I have not abandoned my blog. Honest.
I have not left the country, joined the French Foreign Legion, won the lottery, or found a vacancy in a colony on the moon. Kinda feels like it, though. I’ve been feeling a bit like Dorothy, whirling about in the cyclone of life.
I have a lot going on in so many parts of my world here that it’s taking a great deal of time and attention to stay focused on any one part of it at any given moment. Some days lately it has felt as though there is an endless barrage of high-speed ducks hurtling violently at me and I am working furiously to keep deflecting them.
It’s exhausting, sometimes, this thing called Life.
Every time I sat at my desk recently to write or post something, I walked away feeling frustrated because I did not complete any one thing. That bothered me for a few days until I realized that I was focusing too much on the lack of completion and not enough on the process of working, thinking, writing, and living. I feel like I’ve only too recently been caught up in this very same conversation with myself.
Oh, right, because that happened.
I’m still working on that mindset. Too many things feel like just one more thing to deal with right now and it’s easy to get caught up in the feeling of being burdened and worn down. Too many days lately I’ve felt like saying, “OK, God I get the whole you don’t get more than you can handle thing, but really? Enough. Seriously.”
And then I so appropriately for this time of Lent find myself thinking the Lord surely felt a bit like that at a few points in his last days and weeks on Earth. We know He prayed in the garden at Gethsemane for His Father to take away some of the burden facing him. Human. Understandable. He was, after all, human. But He also found a way to find the strength to accept his burden anyway. He made a choice to willingly suffer the trials that lay before Him. He knew there was really no other way. He knew there was a plan and that it all had to play out in a particular manner. He was, after all, Divine.
I am not divine. Far from it. But each of us holds something of the Divine within us. If that is true, then the only thing to do is draw upon that piece of the Divine and keep moving forward, one day, and one step at a time. I can throw about a hundred inspirational quotes in here, drawing upon sources from the Bible to contemporary literature, from Thomas Paine to Mahatma Gandhi and everyone in between. But no matter who said the words or what book or speech houses them, the messages are all familiar. Life is tough and full of struggle. Nothing worth having comes easily. Everything we experience molds us into the person wee are yet to become. Victory comes only to those who fight the battle. There is no Resurrection without the Cross.
So what does any of that have to do with not posting much lately? Nothing, perhaps. Or everything. My goal for this year is to develop better focus in my life. Sometimes one particular thing demands our focus even when we might prefer to spend our focus on something else. Life happens.
For now, my goal is to focus on the things that currently demand my attention because it is necessary. However. I am also working to avoid allowing those demands on my focus to overwhelm or eclipse the other areas of my life that still need my focus because while less urgent, they are not less important. It’s a difficult balance to find, but crucial to my overall well-being, and that of those around me.
Life is a process.
Love this? Share the love and tell someone!
15 Comments
Comments are closed.
I am not divine myself, but I hold the divine within me. Oh, wow. That thought really touches my soul this morning. That notion strengthens me and makes all things seem possible.
🙂
Amen. Great post!
Thanks, Essie. 🙂
I love this post. We all get to that point where life gets away from us and we feel as if we’re drowning under all of our unfinished tasks. You have the right attitude: Life is a process. It is during this process that we get the most done.
I that’s exactly it – the point where we drop the balls we’re juggling and things get away from us. We are so conditioned to be in control, manage it all, that we don’t take enough time to focus on what we need for ourselves to be able to do that.
I’d love more focus in my life–most of the time I feel like a tornado. Do what’s best for you and your family!
Tornado is a pretty accuate word.
Been there – a lot over the past few months. It’s funny how starting a blog seems fun and at some point keeping up a blog seems like so much pressure. I constantly have to remind myself that it’s my space to post what and WHEN I please. Anyone who cares will be there when I do. 🙂
True enough. You’re right, though – some days it feels like fun, but sometimes I find myself thinking it’s a “have” to and it’s really not.
Truly, though, please post about the fire pole! 🙂
I had been wondering where you have been. Take your time. Focus on the important things and remember…this too shall pass. It always does, doesn’t it? I always remind myself when I get overwhelmed that while the times seem tough NOW, things almost always turn out okay. YOU will be okay.
It’s really true, Heather – at some point down the road, we look back and think “OK, that really wasn’t all that terrible.” But in the throes of it? Ugh.
Lisa, I am right there with you sister. Right when I feel good about things, thunderbolts appear in the sky and rain pours on my head. I just got back a week ago from a wonderful vacation in England to find out I am being laid off. It doesn’t get much better than this.
Now more than ever, I am calling on my goal of presence to keep me sane. I hadn’t written a post while gone as I didn’t have internet most of the time and well, I was on vacation. Now it feels more important than ever to control the things I can (blogging and commenting being of this nature) and letting go of the rest. Hope I didn’t bum you out. M
Thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening! And holy crap – laid off??? So sorry. 🙁
It’s amazing how having that one word, that one goal, can help in ways unexpected. When I picked my word for the year, focus, I thought I’d de-clutter and work on my ADHD a bit. Who knew how many ways already that one word would come in to play. Like now, I am trying to focus on the positives, focus on what we are doing to move ahead, to get past this rough season, focus on what we are gaining from the experience. Hard. Really hard.
[…] On Burdens, Strength, and Balance […]