To
keep my “end of days” in my consciousness, while being focused on living
vibrantly every day, is my challenge.
The first piece of my plan is to add something to a habit I already have
in place. My husband and I start the
morning with prayer and meditation. What
we do is determined by how much time we have.
If we are up early enough and don’t have early appointments we start
with Wayne Dyer Japa morning meditation, but if there is a time crunch we have
short version, and a shorter version, of morning meditation and prayers. The short version does not include Wayne Dyer
but we do read from “One Day at a Time in Al-Anon” and “Around the Year with
Emmett Fox.” The shortest version is
going straight to the prayers: one I wrote when our son was a teenager that I
have edited to include the whole family and, “St. Patrick’s Breastplate.”
This
is where I will add a prayer to include my intention to live with awareness
about my “end of days.” This is my first
go at it. We will try it out, as part of
our morning ritual, and by the praying will find out if it’s what needs to be
prayed for.
“I
call upon you, O Lord, my strength, to keep my awareness grounded in the ending
of my time on earth, so that I come to you having made the most of the gifts
you have given me.”
I
am most definitely a life long prayer.
Prayer has been my refuge, giving me strength in times of trial, and
humility in times of success. For those
who have a problem with praying, or the belief in God, I suggest the Alcoholics
Anonymous concept of God; a Higher Power as you understand him. It is surrendering and just accepting that
ultimately you are not in control of
your life or most certainly your death.
If you were, I’m sure you would join me in declining the opportunity to
exit the planet! Do whatever works for
you. Pray to a higher power of reason, truth, beauty, nature, a universal oversoul,
a life-giving power, or anything else outside of yourself. Turn it all over to him.
Now,
this is where I must address the seldom-silent ego voice in my head that
arrives uninvited to derail my plans. It
could start quietly while I’m just waking with a message that today I should
just get up and get busy right away, I don’t need to pray/meditate every
day! Or pop in later in the day when I
have planned to write, with a helpful hint that I really should clean out the
linen closet! Mind you, sometimes I do
get up really early and start writing
or cleaning, but fortunately most of the time my lovely husband finds me and I
go back to our bedroom where we say our morning prayers. And better yet, when I do miss something I am
committed to, I let go of most judgment thoughts that tell me I’m not
disciplined enough, etc. This makes for
a much more enjoyable day without heaping guilt and recriminations on top of a
missed commitment. My aim, after all, is
to have this process add to the quality of my life, not be something that
becomes a burden.
Morning ritual...with Rufus.
