Anomalies and Spiritual Disciplines August 30, 2006
I am up early this morning through no fault of my own. The tribe of cats who have heretofore peacefully shared my home have enacted a coup and are now officially in power at my place of residence. They celebrated this with a major show of force this morning, including running amok across my sleeping form, minor (but loud) skirmishes over who gets to be Ultimate Supreme Commander and gamboling through the house firing their little bb guns into the air with shouts of victory. I should have never given them those for Christmas last year. And honestly, I can't help but wonder if whiskey was involved in their late night/early morning victory celebration.
So, I reluctantly got out of bed and let them out (they cannot go out at night ever since Mr. M. picked up some stranger and brought him home...I'm all for safe, sane consensual frivolity but this was a dead mouse and that's a definite no-no in my book) made myself some coffee and settled in to write this blog.
I had a very scary first yesterday. Well, it all began on Monday when I had several appointments with people at various local coffee shops. I love coffee and start my day with half a pot to get me going (I have a coffee cup that says: At first I drank coffee to keep me alert, then I drank it to keep me awake. Now I drink it to keep me alive). But--and this is a true confession that I hope won't make you lose respect for me; well at least not any more respect than you might have already lost-- by the end of the day on Monday (which had been capped off with a dinner of apple pie and coffee) I was feeling well, how shall I say this? A little coffeed out. I imagined it was only a temporary setback but yesterday morning when I awoke I could not even bear the thought of coffee (another magnet I have: Coffee: You can sleep when you're dead). It was chilly in Colorado Springs yesterday morning, just below 50, so I definitely wanted a hot drink, but I couldn't even make eye contact with my coffee pot. With futility I scavenged through my pantry for my favorite hot tea (Earl Grey green tea) but I had none of that. Eeek! Couldn't drink coffee, didn't have tea, I was fearing the onset of a major caffeine headache but settled, in the nick of time, for a room temperature diet coke.
I am happy to report this morning that the freakish anomalous experience had passed and I am happily swilling back my second cuppa joe even as I write this.
Today is a big day for me. After weeks, months (decades, eons, it seems) of wrangling, errors, incompetent workers, I'm finally closing on my house refinancing. I tried to be gracious and understanding but at times I reached into a fundamentalist background I don't even have to wonder why God was punishing me. Then I wondered what I had done to achieve such bad karma.
Actually, this was a good thing to reflect upon. As I sat one day last week willing my broker to call me with an update, any update, just talk to me! I thought about karma and I thought about how I hated it that this guy wasn't returning my calls, even if only to say "We're working on it." Then I remembered three emails gathering dust in my inbox which I should have responded to days (and in one case, weeks) ago. I wasn't ignoring these emails, just wanted to be breezy, chatty, or thoughtful, reflective and hadn't had time to write such a thing. I remembered, too, that I had promised to make a copy of my three part sermon series on Homosexuality and the Bible and send that to someone which I hadn't yet done. I wondered how that felt for those waiting for my responses. Hmmm...karma indeed.
So that day I got up, marched to my computer, sent off the three emails and began looking for the original cds of my sermon series. (I'm still looking for part 2, but I will find it, I will, and I'll copy it at the speed of sound, if not light, and pop them in the mail post-haste).
So, there you have it, I'm not saying I would recommend refinancing your house as a spiritual discipline; it's a tough one (lessons learned: patience, grace, respond to emails), not for the faint of heart, but hopefully (for me at least) today will be the culmination of that particular lesson and I can go on to my next learning.
I think I'm going to try driving the speed limit as my next spiritual discipline. I am one of those people who, in dry sunny conditions, is leader of the pack, whizzing effortlessly by those poor sods going the speed limit (or, gasp, below!!). As I make my approach to a red light, I scan with a practiced eye the line-up, choosing the lane with the shortest line of cars (or in some cases, the line with cars that look like they will move the fastest). It doesn't matter if I'm simply going to the grocery store or if I am, indeed late for a meeting (my time optimism getting me into trouble once again) I simply must hurry to get there as quickly as I can. This results in a lot of stress-driving because when I can't be in the lead, I get cranky at those who are impeding my progress.
So yesterday I thought about that, how it impacts my life, my attempts at living peacefully and peaceably with my fellow travelers on the journey of life, how easily my crankiness-o-meter rises when I drive. And I decided to see how it would feel if, for one week, I drove the speed limit everywhere I went. I'm going to begin the experiment today, so I'll keep you posted. I think it'll be tough, I can't promise perfection, but I'll do my best. Then again, maybe it would be easier if I cut back on the caffeine. Eeek! Perish the thought; then the cats would easily subdue me once and for all in my weakened state and I'm sure they wouldn't remodel the kitchen the way I'd like to.
So, I reluctantly got out of bed and let them out (they cannot go out at night ever since Mr. M. picked up some stranger and brought him home...I'm all for safe, sane consensual frivolity but this was a dead mouse and that's a definite no-no in my book) made myself some coffee and settled in to write this blog.
I had a very scary first yesterday. Well, it all began on Monday when I had several appointments with people at various local coffee shops. I love coffee and start my day with half a pot to get me going (I have a coffee cup that says: At first I drank coffee to keep me alert, then I drank it to keep me awake. Now I drink it to keep me alive). But--and this is a true confession that I hope won't make you lose respect for me; well at least not any more respect than you might have already lost-- by the end of the day on Monday (which had been capped off with a dinner of apple pie and coffee) I was feeling well, how shall I say this? A little coffeed out. I imagined it was only a temporary setback but yesterday morning when I awoke I could not even bear the thought of coffee (another magnet I have: Coffee: You can sleep when you're dead). It was chilly in Colorado Springs yesterday morning, just below 50, so I definitely wanted a hot drink, but I couldn't even make eye contact with my coffee pot. With futility I scavenged through my pantry for my favorite hot tea (Earl Grey green tea) but I had none of that. Eeek! Couldn't drink coffee, didn't have tea, I was fearing the onset of a major caffeine headache but settled, in the nick of time, for a room temperature diet coke.
I am happy to report this morning that the freakish anomalous experience had passed and I am happily swilling back my second cuppa joe even as I write this.
Today is a big day for me. After weeks, months (decades, eons, it seems) of wrangling, errors, incompetent workers, I'm finally closing on my house refinancing. I tried to be gracious and understanding but at times I reached into a fundamentalist background I don't even have to wonder why God was punishing me. Then I wondered what I had done to achieve such bad karma.
Actually, this was a good thing to reflect upon. As I sat one day last week willing my broker to call me with an update, any update, just talk to me! I thought about karma and I thought about how I hated it that this guy wasn't returning my calls, even if only to say "We're working on it." Then I remembered three emails gathering dust in my inbox which I should have responded to days (and in one case, weeks) ago. I wasn't ignoring these emails, just wanted to be breezy, chatty, or thoughtful, reflective and hadn't had time to write such a thing. I remembered, too, that I had promised to make a copy of my three part sermon series on Homosexuality and the Bible and send that to someone which I hadn't yet done. I wondered how that felt for those waiting for my responses. Hmmm...karma indeed.
So that day I got up, marched to my computer, sent off the three emails and began looking for the original cds of my sermon series. (I'm still looking for part 2, but I will find it, I will, and I'll copy it at the speed of sound, if not light, and pop them in the mail post-haste).
So, there you have it, I'm not saying I would recommend refinancing your house as a spiritual discipline; it's a tough one (lessons learned: patience, grace, respond to emails), not for the faint of heart, but hopefully (for me at least) today will be the culmination of that particular lesson and I can go on to my next learning.
I think I'm going to try driving the speed limit as my next spiritual discipline. I am one of those people who, in dry sunny conditions, is leader of the pack, whizzing effortlessly by those poor sods going the speed limit (or, gasp, below!!). As I make my approach to a red light, I scan with a practiced eye the line-up, choosing the lane with the shortest line of cars (or in some cases, the line with cars that look like they will move the fastest). It doesn't matter if I'm simply going to the grocery store or if I am, indeed late for a meeting (my time optimism getting me into trouble once again) I simply must hurry to get there as quickly as I can. This results in a lot of stress-driving because when I can't be in the lead, I get cranky at those who are impeding my progress.
So yesterday I thought about that, how it impacts my life, my attempts at living peacefully and peaceably with my fellow travelers on the journey of life, how easily my crankiness-o-meter rises when I drive. And I decided to see how it would feel if, for one week, I drove the speed limit everywhere I went. I'm going to begin the experiment today, so I'll keep you posted. I think it'll be tough, I can't promise perfection, but I'll do my best. Then again, maybe it would be easier if I cut back on the caffeine. Eeek! Perish the thought; then the cats would easily subdue me once and for all in my weakened state and I'm sure they wouldn't remodel the kitchen the way I'd like to.
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