You know how sometimes things seem to be telling you something?
(This is a cognitive bias, of course--the universe is not trying to tell me anything. It's not trying to do anything, unless, as Neil deGrasse Tyson says, it's "trying" to kill me, i.e., work its entropy on me and spread my atoms around.)
But anyway, psychologically it's good to listen up.
Lately I've strung together a whole bunch of messages, all the same:
Slow down.
☛Running for the bus and falling flat on my face.
☛A coworker telling me I'm "too hyper." (I don't like this coworker, who always has a sour expression, but that doesn't mean she's wrong.)
☛NOT taking breaks at work, even though my hand therapist advised me to.
Yesterday even the wheatgrass I drank the co-op said, BALANCE.*
And last night, Mr Boss posted a line from Exodus (14:14) on FB:
I will patiently keep pondering, practicing, and inviting a bit of stillness.
* At the co-op, the woman eating a breakfast sandwich next to me commented, “My mind says wheatgrass but my body says bacon.”
** It actually says "The Lord will fight for you", but I always cringe at that lord, lord language––I picture an unpleasant old guy in a manor, and me a serf.
So I change it to "love"--a valid swap, since 1 John says, "God is love," in the sense that God = Love; therefore Love = God.
Right? Any logicians out there?
(This is a cognitive bias, of course--the universe is not trying to tell me anything. It's not trying to do anything, unless, as Neil deGrasse Tyson says, it's "trying" to kill me, i.e., work its entropy on me and spread my atoms around.)
But anyway, psychologically it's good to listen up.
Lately I've strung together a whole bunch of messages, all the same:
Slow down.
☛Running for the bus and falling flat on my face.
☛A coworker telling me I'm "too hyper." (I don't like this coworker, who always has a sour expression, but that doesn't mean she's wrong.)
☛NOT taking breaks at work, even though my hand therapist advised me to.
Yesterday even the wheatgrass I drank the co-op said, BALANCE.*
And last night, Mr Boss posted a line from Exodus (14:14) on FB:
"Love will fight for you; you need only to be still.” **
I like that quote a lot. Sometimes I am approaching work as if it were a fight I need to win. If I'm going to see it that way, I could relax and let Love take it on.
But, how? What would help me do this?
I will patiently keep pondering, practicing, and inviting a bit of stillness.
___________________
* At the co-op, the woman eating a breakfast sandwich next to me commented, “My mind says wheatgrass but my body says bacon.”
** It actually says "The Lord will fight for you", but I always cringe at that lord, lord language––I picture an unpleasant old guy in a manor, and me a serf.
So I change it to "love"--a valid swap, since 1 John says, "God is love," in the sense that God = Love; therefore Love = God.
Right? Any logicians out there?
Well...very much not a logician, but it does bring to mind reconstituting stuffed animals which have some wear, if religion were a plush bear.
ReplyDeleteSPARKER: That is among my top favorite comments ever!
ReplyDeleteYes, I approach the Bible like a run-over plush bear!
Thanks for that!
VIVIAN: "My Wheat Grass Says, Shut Up"-- that works too!
Makes me laugh.
Poor Moses.
Poor Israelites!
Freedom is such a drag, and getting there is awful.
Forty years of desert camping? Is that really an improvement?!?!
But as with reconstituting stuffed animals, here I'm just playing with something that came into my life, of course, not concerned with a literal reconstruction--but thanks for your digging around!
Language is such fun stuff.
I think replacing Lord with Love (when it's a good God context) is a fair swap. It's YOUR theology that you're trying to convey, not the theology of the Hebrew Scriptures, so what makes it right is what works for you.
ReplyDeleteIf your theology said replace "Lord" with the word Bacon...that would work too...if that was your theology.
Quotes are shorthand, already expressed, for thoughts we relate to. Accuracy of quotes has a place in academia, but I say use them as you will in creating your own philosophy: they're in public domain to be played with and riffed on like any other piece of writing, art, music.
May the Bacon be with you!
It's important to hear these messages from the Universe! I think substituting "Love" for "Lord" makes perfect sense.
ReplyDeleteBINK: Good point--if my point were to do Biblical exegesis, of course it would be different, but it's not.
ReplyDeleteBacon! Funny! :)
STEVE: Thanks, I agree it's a good idea to listen up to what the people and the world around you is telling you.
There might be some messages we've missed, or we'd prefer to ignore, that bear consideration.