Rewind the Tape

 

Allison Fallon encourages each of us to write our story to see how God’s threads that are woven into our life.  All humans are meaning making machines.  Fallon says at some point we ask, what is the meaning of life? What role do I play?  Is there a God and what is God’s work in all this?  What is true and what responsibilities are mine?  What can I learn?  When we write our story of life, perhaps not because it will become a best seller and win rave reviews by all the critics, what we are doing is listening to our life ~ which is how God shows up.  We are, as William Ury says, “getting to the balcony of our life to get some perspective.”  We live in a world that is constantly reacting, trying to get the first hot take on the current events as they unfold.  And if we are wrong, no worries, we will just deny and deflect that we said what we said.  We need balcony time to reflect on all the stimuli that cause synapses in our brain to fire without ceasing ~ because synapses that fire together wire together.  So, if our natural, normal response is to always see threats…that is what we will always see.  Today, I invite you to breathe and be, rewind the VHS tape of this week and look one moment from Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.  Could have been a meeting or a conversation.  I invite you to do one that does NOT cause your blood pressure to rise, but rather is neutral or leaning toward heartwarming.

 

Who was in the room with you? 

What as the vibe, temperature in the room (both literally and metaphorically)

Any smells that you remember?

Any sensations that you recall?

Describe the setting and scene in vivid and vibrant technicolor!

 

What did you feel, think, and say?  Try to be an observer here.  Turn off the inner commentary critic that wants to point out all the flubs and foibles and faults.  Just describe.

 

What do you think the other person or people felt, thought, said?  Note, that we do not know why someone did what they did, ever.  Because truthfully, we don’t know why we do what we do.  As Justin McRoberts says, may I cease to be annoyed that others are not as I wish they were, since I am not as I wish I was. 

 

Hold your insights as we continue to explore how the atoms of energy that bounce around inside us interact with the atoms of energy that are at work outside of us, knowing that there is more mystery than we will ever solve in life, even if we evoke our inner-Sherlock Holmes meets Scooby Doo.  Amen