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Tag: living

  • Waiting to Live?

    Waiting to Live?

    When the occasional social media post tugs at something inside of me I make a note of it in my journal, and reflect on it a little further. One such post was titled ‘5 Reasons you might be waiting for your life to start’, by Elisabeth Corey. While Elisabeth’s focus is on recovery from trauma, there is some truth in this for all of us. Too often something in our past hold us back from living in the present.  Perhaps, not trauma from childhood; but, it may be something that happened last year or even yesterday that stops us truly living today. Meanwhile, we exist while we dwell on these things of the past. As Corey highlights, the problem is we wait for someone to apologise, someone to release us, someone to give us permission, for everything to be perfect or for peace to reign.  We are waiting to live.

    Of course, this doesn’t apply only to those living in the past. It can also apply to those living in the future.  We joke when I win the lotto, when I lose these surplus kilos, or find the perfect partner…then I will start living!  It’s like watching the clock for finish time and missing what is happening right now. Or, thinking about what you will say to someone else in the future and ignore the person chatting away beside you.  Crazy hey!

    Before we know it we have existed for most of our earthly lives, and never really lived it.  Sure, you were there in your body, but where was your mind or your soul, at the time?  I should know this as it required piecing together a photo collage, or album, to relive moments of my past; and realising I was present there in body only.  Where was I at the time?  No doubt wishing that something was different or better.  As the saying goes, ‘Be careful, less you wish your life away!’

    Living in the present is the mantra of modern-day mindfulness. There is growing evidence that practicing mindfulness reduces stress and anxiety; so, it is good for both body and soul. This practice involves consciously becoming aware of what is happening inside and outside of one self, without judgement.  While linked to Buddhism, mindfulness is not exclusive to this eastern religion. Nowadays, there is also a form devoid of all religion. Mindfulness, in the form of meditation and contemplation, is also found on the ancient Christian path.

    The Christian version looks a lot like, ‘Be still, and know I am God’ (Psalm 46:10). It is acknowledging that despite chaos and uncertainty, we can find a God given stillness and peace. By opening up we make space for God. In this space we have the ability to hear from Him and find the grace to obey His word.  Mindfulness is not an end in itself but a way forward. Living in the present is not to discount the past, or refuse to consider the future.  It is choosing to respond to the life that is in the here and now.

    The process of being still allows us to capture those swirling and anxious thoughts, and allow God’s mind – the mind of Christ, to bring forgiveness and truth, healing and wholeness – today.  As Richard Foster says, this is not about emptying our mind, but rather filling it.  Rather than detachment from our life, it is an attachment to God and a redirection of our lives. Of course, this is not always a comfortable space.  Keeping God at arm’s length, or leaving him out of the whole mindfulness exercise, is to live life on our own terms.   Some of us would much rather hold onto grudges, blame others for our failure to take responsibility, wait for a perfect tomorrow, or attempt to forget everything; rather than do what God is asking us to do now – living in His presence. As Richard Foster says in Celebration of Discipline, ‘the aim is to bring this living reality into all of life’.

    What if the difference between existing and living, is not emptying our minds of everything- past, present and future; but, rather filling our minds with the presence of the living God and allowing Him to transform us with His love?  Foster explains that we can do this several ways; attentiveness to God through stillness and silence, by meditating on Scripture, or by meditating on creation. It is in the ‘listening, sensing, (and) heeding the light and life of Christ’ that we find the ability to truly live our life today.  So, what are we waiting for?  Our yesterdays, nor our tomorrows, need not hold us back from living life today. We can do this with God’s help and in His presence.

    Photo by S Migaj on Unsplash

    References:

    Corey, Elisabeth. 5 Reasons You Might be Waiting for Your Life to Start. Jun 6, 2018. https://beatingtrauma.com/2018/06/06/5-reasons-you-might-be-waiting-for-your-life-to-start/?fbclid=IwAR0Ak49X5S0nij4hlz1gkxCtdtaVndl2fWORQwDYUafxEJWpQtd3tIwq9hE

    Foster, Richard J. Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988.

  • Bucket list adventures

    Bucket list adventures

    Sometimes I have to pinch myself as a reminder that I live in a part of the world that other people mark on their bucket list.  On my doorstep is one of the world’s seven wonders; the Great Barrier Reef.   And at certain times of the year, one can witness sea turtles hatching and turning to the sea.

    A couple of months earlier their mother, a huge lumbering green turtle would have dragged herself up the beach, dug a hole for her eggs, before lumbering back down again.  After incubation, the nest of around 100 infant turtles or hatchlings, bubble up from under the sand and with almost magical sensitivity scramble to the waters of the ocean.

    My first experience of turtle hatchlings was ten years ago when our family camped on North West Island.  This coral atoll of the Great Barrier Reef is populated mainly by seabirds and visited by no more than one hundred and fifty camping tourists at any one time.  Our first visit was in April when the camping season had just opened.  This amazing island, less than seventy kilometres off the coast of the Queensland city of Gladstone, was an overnight ferry trip for us and our camping gear.     

    I remember relaxing for the evening in a camp chair, with a nightcap cuppa under the shadow of the island’s undergrowth.  I was contemplating bed when something bumped into my foot. The small creature, only about 5cm in length, was attracted to our camp’s light instead of the moonlight and was heading inland and not to sea.  One calls out and everyone in the campsite is up; out of beds and chairs to get up close and see these delightful leathery little reptiles scrambling in confusion.  With buckets and torches, we collected dozens of hatchlings before releasing them into the waters of the lagoon surrounding the island. 

    Of course, not all baby turtles are so fortunate with tides and the advantage of darkness.  Nothing prepared me for the despair I felt as I watched swooping gulls grabbing at another batch of hatchlings emerging in the daylight from the dunes.  For those that made it to the water’s edge, it is then a long paddle across the shallows to the ocean beyond. 

    One little boy in our camping party, was not going to give up on one little hatchling. He followed it down the beach, across the shallow lagoon and to the reef’s edge.  He was determined no gull would eat ‘his’ hatchling and willed the little fellow to survive.  Of course, once in the ocean, any number of predatory fish could have been waiting to eat this little leathery chap for lunch. The odds of any hatchling making it to maturity are one thousand to one. 

    Last camping trip to the island (my fifth time) I didn’t even bother to get up from my chair when someone yelled ‘turtles’!  As I look at this picture, taken on our third trip there, I want to pinch myself for forgetting what a privilege it is to have witnessed multiple sea turtles hatching on the Great Barrier Reef.   If I had a bucket list filled with exotic adventures around the world, I could have marked off two that happened at my back door! 

    Do you have a bucket list?  I first heard of a bucket list from watching the 2007 movie of the same name, starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson.  Freeman’s and Nicholson’s characters are terminally ill, aging men who set out to mark adventures off a list before they ‘kicked the bucket’.  Facing death, these men decide to live life fully until they died. 

    Death is indeed a sobering thought and one that causes lots of us anxiety.  One thing is for sure, we are all going to die- one day. Worrying about it is not living. 

    I have witnessed people giving up on life, years before their death and then others seem to defy the natural barriers that come with age and are still living a life filled with adventures. 

    What will it be for you in 2018?  What adventures on a bucket list will you mark off?  What will you add on?  Remember: “Life is for living; not worrying about dying.” (Author Unknown).