How does one survive a meeting which starts at 10AM and ends at 7:30PM? 🙂
After all we say and do, nothing beats a simple time of prayer – personal, as well as in support for one another.
When one believes that God speaks through the scriptures, wonders lurk behind the feeble voice who reads from the texts. There’s a mysterious working which defies analysis for the moment, in fact, one must not get distracted by a busy mind and allow the vibrations of the words to do it’s work on the whole being who is vulnerable.
Conversations which are more than two way push beyond a dialogue between two people. The potential of reasoned debate turning into a mere restatement of hardened positions is present. With perseverance and persistence, and also a good dose of courage and humility, the conversation partners find themselves laying out clearer of what was originally in their heads. There needs to be a temporary liminal space where ideas are more tentative then some mutual revision takes place. It’s delicate. One might still remain with their original position but not without serious considering angles we might have been blind too. We could also totally switch our original understandings to new ones. Whatever happens, change still does.
Attending to our own lives at a deeper level is so needed these days. Superficial living is perpetuated further by the overcrowded busy lives we live. Whether it’s to fit our own agendas of acquiring wealth to fill the "voids" in our earthly pilgrimage, or working on outside agendas of changing the world we see as messed up, if the inner life is unattended to we lose the ability to reorder the outer life of concrete decisions.
Simply hiding in our inner worlds of cluttered thoughts and emotions without making relevant connections to the outer world causes dissonance as well. The inner world tends towards either ideals or disillusions. Where has the movement between the two poles is where the actual living, feeling and thinking is happening. That’s why the practice of writing it down, talking it out, exploring with others, checking with outside sources makes such a difference. The clutter gets uncluttered, and the process of rearranging it becomes a little bit easier.
The coffee is ok today. Nothing spectacular but it’s what I need to wake up.
How did I survive a long meeting where other people’s voices need to be heard, and the process is as important as the final decision?
Wifi was helpful, a fellow notebook companion helped, some time to zoned out and then zone in was needed, patience, a desire to understand and be in solidarity, a mix of questioning and encouragement, and so forth. It helps when we accept that we live in a world of structures and even institutions we work within the limits of how many people are around the table, how well we are communicating as well as receiving our messages, the moments where we lapse into daydreaming or distractions, with a load of other physically limiting factors, … because we are not in a dream where we can speed things up with a click. It’s hard work, in some cases it’s faster and in other cases slower .. but going through it is still what is needed. Accepting this helps, fighting against it frustrates unless one chooses to sit out. But some of us don’t have this luxury.
one last sip of coffee and we’re ready to go …
Nice to get back to some random thoughts, sometime I think I’m linear at other times I’m rattling away. Anyway, at least some clutter is uncluttered 🙂
hey you got a nice late start though 😉