A TED talk by photographer Louie Schwartzberg, and a short film (exquisite) narrated by Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast. Watch and open your life to Life, experience the truth that "Today is a gift that was given to you, and the only appropriate response is gratitude." See the world again through the eyes of a child and an elderly man.
Feeling out of balance? What to do about it . . .
I read recently of an eighteen year old Taiwanese man who collapsed after forty hours of non-stop internet gaming. He apparently died from a blood clot after sitting too long without a break. Christians have a word for this simple act of break-taking. It's called "Sabbath". But it's gone out of style.
We're just too busy.
There's too much to do, too many texts.
There's the newsfeed on your Facebook page you've got to keep up with.
I'm not suggesting some return to a bygone legalism where people were forced to practice the Sabbath each Sunday. But I am suggesting that we take seriously the natural rhythms that are part of nature when its not paved over by modern technology, when our lives aren't so harassed and harried by an endless web of wireless connectivity. I want us to take these natural rhythms seriously because I visit with so many people who feel out of balance, strangers to themselves and others--people who feel over-crowded, over-stressed, and under-nourished by the simple things in life that create beauty, meaning, and pleasure.
"Remember the sabbath day," says God, "and keep it holy" (Exodus 20.8). The commandment wasn't a suggestion. It's a commandment because human beings need a break.
Intention: Today, I'll take a break. I'll step away from my computer and talk to a coworker. I'll turn off the music while driving (silence my cell phone too), and just be where I am...driving. I'll avoid watching TV or surfing the web just before bed, and walk outside and look at the stars.
Disconnect to Connect a video meditation
Have we lost something important about being human?
Life has rhythms that make sense to follow. There's the daily rhythm shaped around night and day. There's the weekly rhythm, the monthly rhythm. There are seasonal rhythms too. Schools shape our rhythms. So do business cycles. But sometimes these rhythms get blurred. The electric lightbulb has made it possible for people to ignore the enforced rhythm night once brought upon us. We can now work 24/7. And while seasonal rhythms still affect us, heating and air-conditioning have made it so that we feel these changes less than our great grandparents once did. Not having to go to bed at dusk because there's nothing else you can do comes with great benefits. You can read a book, post something on Facebook, see a movie, drive a car. And who among us wants to feel the lethargy or even danger we'd feel if we could find no air-conditioned break from a stretch of 108 degree August weather?
But I wonder if we've not lost something important about being human when we find ourselves distanced from the natural rhythms that would shape our lives if we had no modern technology.
Look, I'm not suggesting we become Luddites--those nineteenth century British textile artisans, who, sensing the massive changes coming toward them at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, destroyed the new power looms that were displacing skilled human labor with time saving machinery. No, I have great affection for so much that technology brings into our lives to join them.
I am wondering, though, if learning to create some space between ourselves and our devices might bring more balance, pleasure, and beauty into our over-crowded, overly stressed lives. When you've got virtually instant access to a vast global library of everything under the sun, and when you are accessible through your laptop, tablet, or smartphone, 24/7, to anyone wanting to text you, email you, or instant chat from anywhere in the world, something's got to happen to your soul. You lack the natural rhythms that create healthful boundaries and structures for human life.
Intention: Today, I'll take a more critical and suspicious posture to my devices. Grateful for them in so many ways, I won't let them blind me to the fact that they can use me rather than me using them. I'll create some period during the day when I'm not accessible to anyone or anything that's not actually in front of me. I'll unplug and begin to regain the more natural rhythms that can heal my soul.
How to avoid the collective insanity
Calm. Composure. Level-headedness. Poise. I'll bet these are things you want in your surgeon or pilot. And I'm guessing you'd like to possess them yourself. The ability to hold yourself calm in the eye of a storm will save you a lot of suffering over the long haul. But calm doesn't just come over you; you've got to work it into you, massaging it into the deep tissue of your being through practice, practice, practice.
Contemplative prayer is such a practice. Through meditation on the name of Jesus or some other simple prayer, you make a habit of drawing of your mind down into your heart and holding it there in the presence of God. In this way you train yourself to dwell at the center, remain composed and calm, no matter what's going on around you.
One of my kids called late one night. He was stuck in on the 134 in LA. An accident. Traffic at a dead stop, not even crawling along. People around him pounding their steering wheels in rage. Others swearing out their windows. His own anxiety skyrocketing in the midst of the mayhem. Never mind that someone's suffering, maybe dead on the road ahead. Thousands are stuck in gridlock, feeling claustrophobic and powerless to do anything but rage against it all.
Unless you've trained yourself for such a time as this, you'll get sucked into the collective insanity.
Practice poise. Enter the stillness each day in prayer. For 5 minutes (but the more, the better), do nothing in the presence of God but fend off the thoughts that try to pull you away from center. Return to the center, to God. Just be.
Then when you're on the road or in a meeting, answering an email or listening to the news you're less likely to get sucked into the collective insanity of so many around you who do not practice peace.
Intention: Today, I'll practice poise. I'll grow still in prayer. I'll massage into my deep tissue a growing trust in God's presence in and around me.