I was blessed with the opportunity to participate with a diverse group of peers who spent concentrated time together examining our lives. Our days together were created in a confidential setting so that the space was there for us to be fully present, completely authentic, and wholly open to what the experience could bring to us. As we considered what it meant to live intentionally, the 1975 song “Wake Up Everybody” by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes resonated with me. What became evident was the dedicated time to be in a supportive and contemplative space allowed us to hear what our daily lives had accumulated as buried treasure deep inside. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6B-UnRtPz8
It gave me pause to realize how easy it is for us to essentially go to sleep in our lives. We don’t mean to, and we’re certainly busy filling them with doing all the time….to what purpose? If we are not clear about the phases of our lives, and don’t notice as we transition from one to another, we simply find ourselves somewhere one day and wonder how we got there and why people are in our lives. In some cases, early mistakes change the course of our lives. We live out consequences and allow them to fully define us instead of making adjustments to stay on track with life goals. Sure, it may be harder and may take longer, but the tough learning moments in our lives don’t have to lull us permanently to sleep.
Sometimes, we enter relationships that are ill-advised that take us years to recover from, if we do. Or our focus becomes solely our children without continuing to take good care of ourselves. We are unable to be the role models they desperately need in order to learn how to create enriched lives that also include boundaries. We don’t take care of the bodies that were given to us so that we can be vessels, which enable us to be fully capable of the purposes for our lives. We are sluggish, too tired to contemplate doing more challenging things, or let the real opportunity pass, because we weren’t alert enough to see how the journey of our life could shift.
We allow our souls to be drowned by others’ expectations placed on our lives. We choose not to make time for our Maker and walk further and further away from the communal understanding of what it means to be in relationship to each other, while we share precious space on this earth. We fail to value the abundance and diversity of talent and retreat from holding each other accountable to use our gifts generously in service to each other. Considering on a regular basis with what you are filling the space in your life requires us to wake up. As they say, this is not a dress rehearsal. We need time for God; time to hear our own voice too. We need to stay engaged with the world in order to be relevant, but trying to keep up with the volume of what is now available in any given moment can also lull us to sleep as the great distractions overwhelm us; as they are intended to do.
For if we are not fully aware of what is really transpiring around us, if we continue to walk past those who need our help as we continue with our busy-ness, if we lurch from one activity to another without a grounding of where our lives have meaning; the real problems of the world don’t get addressed. If we look back at history, significant and damaging changes happened in the world when people were not paying attention.
This world, and our part in it, can either be a very beautiful experience as we wake up one by one, answering our calling, and becoming attuned to creating a world filled with caring people, building sustainability, and supporting each other; or we can allow it to be siphoned away. I invite you to wake up and stay wide awake to the possibility of being fully alive, generous, and alert to your mission.
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