Translating a World on the Edge

Since most of have things about ourselves we’d like to change or make better, we’re always planning new beginnings. In our heads, the tape plays, “This Monday, I’m going to start…….”

But if you’re like me, starting something over, or beginning something new, is hard to do. We get very comfortable with our bad habits, don’t we? We know we ought to ‘fix’ them, but we’re a bit wimpy when it comes to actually doing it. I have a set of hand weights I bought nearly twenty years ago—how many times have I used them? Maybe twenty. Yes, I’m that bad!

It’s called procrastination. Here’s a great quote: Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin.– Victor Kiam

People will tell you to “just do it!” But how?

Here are ten things, presented by Marcia Eckerd, Ph.D. on Psychology Today. They’re not instant, she says, but at least helpful:

” 1. Create a deadline you must meet. I set up a meeting that requires me to finish a report and use panic to get me going.
2. It’s common knowledge, but it works – go on your diet or exercise routine with a friend.
3. Break the task into smaller pieces and reward yourself when you actually finish a piece. (Snickers is my reward of choice.) It helps to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
4. Work somewhere outside of home so the usual distractions aren’t there. Or make your work area as distraction-free as possible.
5. Get started even if it’s a gesture. Often, that’s the hump that’s hardest to hurdle.
6. Actually look at your to-do list. Take off anything non-essential, and set a time to start on one thing. The size of the list may scare you away.
7. Talk to yourself, although not out loud if you’re somewhere public. Repeat to yourself: “I have set a priority.” If you feel pulled to do errands or check e-mail, you have set a priority.
8. Organize the bills/papers/supplies you need to do your task. You’re less likely to wander away if you have everything together.
9. Set a time when you must sit down, and don’t allow yourself to do anything else for at least a half hour. You might start out of boredom.
10. Figure out a time to do what you need to do and stick to it. As crazy as it sounds, I lift weights before I go to bed. It’s the only consistent time I can manage.”

Oh, but Dr. Eckerd–you don’t know me!!

By HenriqBastos, 2014, MorgueFile.com

For the lady involved, one of the first rules of Ballroom dancing is:  Let your partner lead.

Oh, is that hard to do for me! I like to be in control. I like to be in charge. I think it comes from having been the mother of five, as well as a business owner for a good portion of my life.

But I’ve come to see that always being in control does not always work.

A few years back, I was in charge of driving one of my daughters to college at Belmont Abbey in North Carolina.  I had to drive through Atlanta, always a fearful drive to me.  In addition, two of my younger children were with me, making noise, causing so much confusion that I had trouble following the signs. I ordered them to behave. I ordered them to be quiet. Oh yes, I yelled out all the consequences they would face!

Then, in the busy traffic, I approached an overhead aqueduct with a scrawl of words in black paint: JESUS IS IN CONTROL.  How happy I was for that reminder!

Because Jesus is in control.

We don’t need to lead.  He will do it.

All we need to do is relax in His arms.

With no more yelling, I made it through Atlanta. I made it to the college.

I’ve made it through much more difficult situations over the years.

I’ve made it with the help of Jesus, the controlling partner in the dance of my life..

I spent my childhood summers on Panama City Beach, Florida at a cottage my grandfather built for my grandmother , a surprise for their twenty-fifth anniversary. The beach was something very familiar, the Easter Basket colors of its water–lime green, purple, cobalt blue. Its sand white as sugar, its dunes barely able to be climbed by a young child, and challenging to the point of necessity for a pre-teen. But the most impressive characteristic of the beach were the waves.

A wave can startle. A wave can hit you in the face. And unless you’re careful, a wave can bring you down.

Isn’t life like that, too?

Don’t we often have wave after wave of surprises, disappointments, and even devastations in life?

But when we make the right judgments, the same waves that bring these things also bring delight, laughter, and that refreshing past-time–fun.

There are scientific principals that effect the waves on a beach, make them less or more.

There are principled and unprincipled people who effect the waves in our life as well, making it more or less.

Who are those people in our lives ?

On a beach, there are some wonderful waves we’d play in, and some violent waves we wouldn’t go near for fear of danger.

In life there are some wonderful people who care deeply for us, and there are some whose lies we fall for time after time. Shouldn’t we discriminate between the two? Shouldn’t we consider the dangers, or benefits of each?

All this concerns what we’re actually after, what we’re really looking for in our lives. We can pretend we’re seeking Truth, but unless we really try to discover and accept what Truth actually is, we’re hypocrites.

The Truth is that there are some people who can help us along, who will walk with us if we let them–people who mirror the image of God in which we are made. And there are people who pretend to be our best friend, but who actually who mirror the Father of Lies.

Which of these should we turn to? Which of these should we walk with? Which of these should we trust during our journey toward eternal life?

By quicksandala, 2015, MOrgueFile.com

Science tells us that humans appeared on Earth over 200,000 years ago. Can you imagine how many human beings have come and gone in that time?

The older we get, the more we hear it: Life is Short.
And of course, it is. So, why do we think we’re so important when we’re ‘here today and gone tomorrow?’

Who are we anyway?? And why should anyone care whether we’re here or not?

Karl Rahner  (March 5, 1904 – March 30, 1984), was a  German Jesuit priest and theologian, is considered one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the 20th century.  According to Rahner, all things in the world come from the one same origin, God; so there is  “an inner similarity and commonality,” most clearly disclosed in a human being. A person is the unity of spirit and matter, and only in a human person can spirit and matter can be experienced in their real essence and in their unity. That spirit represents the unique mode of existence of a single person–when a person makes himself accessible to it. And it is always oriented towards the incomprehensible Mystery called God.

In other words, we are here because of God–and for God.

And what would he have us do?

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” –Matthew 22:36-40