David Lee

24 Hours a Day

Meditation for the Day

There are two things that we must have if we are going to change our way of life. One is faith, the confidence in things unseen, the fundamental goodness and purpose in the universe. The other is obedience: that is, living according to our faith, living each day as we believe that God wants us to live, with gratitude, humility, honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love. Faith and obedience, these two, will give us all the strength we need to overcome sin and temptation and to live a new and more abundant life.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may have more faith and obedience. I pray that I may live a more abundant life as a result of these things.

Language of Letting Go

Balance

Seek balance.

Balance emotions with reason.

Combine detachment with doing our part.

Balance giving with receiving.

Alternate work with play, business with personal activities.

Balance tending to our spiritual needs with tending to our other needs.

Juggle responsibilities to others with responsibilities to ourselves.

Balance caring about others with caring about ourselves.

Whenever possible, let’s be good to others, but be good to ourselves too.

Some of us have to make up for lost time.

Today, I will strive for balance.

This upcoming weekend will be one of the three-day variety, as Friday is an optional teacher workday and I’m opting not to work.

I’ll get to try out my new riding lawn mower and get the yard spruced up a bit.

I’m planning on cleaning out my car, a job that is long overdue, and washing and vacuuming it as well.

I’ll try to leave some time for cleaning up inside the house as well…like the afore-mentioned car cleaning, it’s needed to be done for a while.

I’m going to try to enjoy myself while doing some of the those things that I’ve neglected to do over the past several weeks. Since it’s the second weekend of the newly hatched spring season, I’ll also look at it as the birth of a new season of thinking as well.

Now, if only the weather will cooperate…but as always, that’s not anything I have any control over.

David Lee

24 Hours a Day

Meditation for the Day

The power of God’s spirit is the greatest power in the universe. Our conquest of each other, the great kings and conquerors, the conquest of wealth, the leaders of the money society, all amount to very little in the end. But he who conquers himself is greater than he who conquers a city. Material things have no permanence. But God’s spirit is eternal. Everything really worthwhile in the world is the result of the power of God’s spirit.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may open myself to the power of God’s spirit. I pray that my relationships with others may be improved by this spirit.

Language of Letting Go…

After-Burn

How could I do it? How could I say it? Even though I meant it, I still feel ashamed, guilty, and afraid.

This is common reaction to new, exciting recovery behaviors. Anything to do with owning our power and taking care of ourselves can trigger feelings of shame, guilt, and fear.

We do not have to allow these feelings to control us. They’re a backlash. They’re after-burn. Let them burn out.

When we start confronting and attacking feelings and messages, we will experience some after-burn. The after-burn is what we allowed to control us all our life — shame and guilt.

Many of us grew up with shame-based messages that it wasn’t okay to take care of ourselves, be honest, be direct, and own our power with people. Many of us grew up with messages that it wasn’t okay to be who we were and resolve problems in relationships. Many of us grew up with the message that what we want and need isn’t okay.

Let it all burn off. We don’t have to take after-burn so seriously. We don’t let the after-burn convince us that we are wrong and don’t have a right to take care of ourselves and set boundaries.

Do we really have the right to take care of ourselves? Do we really have the right to set boundaries? Do we really have the right to be direct and say what we need to say?

You bet we do.

Today, I will let any after-burn which sets in after I practice a new recovery behavior, burn off. I will not take it so seriously. God, help me let go of my shame and needless fears about what will happen to me if I really start caring for and loving myself.

In my own mind, I sometimes have a hard time differentiating serendipity and synchronicity. I think the two don’t necessarily have to be mutually exclusive of one another. But this past week, I’ve had two specific events in my life that seem to point out the difference.

Serendipitous Event

I was contemplating purchasing a riding lawn mower and over the past week had done some online shopping to compare prices. I was a bit surprised by how expensive the latest models were. I was talking with a teaching friend at school one day and mentioned that I was shopping for a riding mower. She “just so happened” to be going to sell hers. The price she was asking for her slightly-used rider was less than half of the prices I had seen. The deal was done. I randomly mentioned what I was looking for and she just happened to be selling that same exact thing. A fortunate series of events.

Synchronistic Event

I recently made a new friend online who lives far away in the state of Oregon. In our Sunday conversation, she mentioned that she was going out with her daughter to pick morels, a type of edible mushroom. That very morning, I had picked out a Miami Dolphin jersey to wear with the name “Morral” on the back. Two words who had different spellings, but the same pronunciations. What are the chances of that? I hadn’t worn that jersey, which by the way had the player’s name misspelled, in nearly a year. But before my friend announcing her plans for the day across the country, I had chosen to wear that particular jersey. What are the chances of that?

What does it all mean you might ask???

I’ve been asked more than once what serendipitous and synchronsitic events might mean to me. In this case of the riding mower purchase, I had put my intentions out into the universe and the universe had responded. The key was that I chose to share with my teaching friend that I was shopping for a riding mower. Had a not “put that out there,” the purchase would not have taken place. If the mower in question hadn’t been too large for her small frame, she would still be using it. The two events coincided in time and place.

In the case of the football jersey/mushroom event, it means that the connection that I had made with the friend in Oregon holds something advantageous in store for both of us. While it doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re going to get together cross-country, it does mean that our online meeting was not by chance and holds possible benefits for us both, whether we actually ever meet or not.

David Lee