![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
So, i'm taking more time off work soon. Looking at my calendar, i've been arranging a four day weekend each month for a bit. If i count the personal day each quarter plus the current accrual, it does turn out to be two days off per month. I'm relieved that i'm not spending more time off than i earn as i try to make sure i get the down time i need.
Even if the miraculous emotional state change doesn't seem to have persisted, it is time for me to return to my life. Yesterday, as Christine and i took a very long walk, i resolved that i will "indulge" my need for rest from work a little longer, but on Monday i need to evaluate and make some plans for the not at office time. Primarily, i have things i've not done for months, things i've dropped or put on the floor to accomodate the intensity of work. What do i do about those things? How do i "catch up" without having that need drive me nuts?
Yesterday's creation idea was to do some calligraphy around the injunctions to not worry in the Sermon on the Mount. A number of us discussed it on Monday night -- we were reading the collection of quotations on Fear in Plain Living by Catherine Whitmire. The first is a Rufus Jones selection that asserts Christ's main point in the sermon on the mount is to get rid of fears and anxieties. We had to go read that to see if we agreed. We found this section, which is at the end of chapter 6 of Matthew (6:25-6:34). Wikipedia labels the whole of chapter 6 as the discourse on ostentation . Read as a whole -- not picking out pieces -- this seems to be a bit of tough love, far more practical advice (worry is not going to help you, stop it) than inspirational. There is a little touch of promise, that Providence will meet the needs as they arise, that i know has been amplified over the nearly nearly two millennia since the new testament was codified.
Unfortunately, there's no simple message there that speaks to what i would like to record. Rufus Jones' piece also doesn't have a compact injunction to write other than the imperfect and blunt, "Stop your unnecessary worries, Cut your excessive anxieties." Oh, Rufus, how much anxiety is not excessive? Which of my worries are necessary?
The group discussed the Buddhist practices that step one away from worries, and i think of the impact of reading http://dogobarrygraham.blogspot.com/ and his strong message to - in my best encapsulation - stop making up stories. I don't think i can articulate well what i'm learning. I don't find myself able to write a reminder to not worry that grounds the reminder in an understanding of *why* not to worry that would be also be motivational. Verse 6:34 of Matthew tries to motivate you not to worry about tomorrow because today has its own "malice" (in Wycliff's translation) -- somehow, i find that simply motivation to worry about today.
Anyhow -- i had had a creative idea: do calligraphy as a gift, imagining some lovely inspiration to not worry, but i now believe that one must convince ones own self that the amygdala's fears need to be held at a distance. Rufus Jones calls it the slavery of fear. Each person will likely come to that by their own road.
I'm still trying to figure out what crochet to do on Saturday night when Christine and i have a needlework date.
Even if the miraculous emotional state change doesn't seem to have persisted, it is time for me to return to my life. Yesterday, as Christine and i took a very long walk, i resolved that i will "indulge" my need for rest from work a little longer, but on Monday i need to evaluate and make some plans for the not at office time. Primarily, i have things i've not done for months, things i've dropped or put on the floor to accomodate the intensity of work. What do i do about those things? How do i "catch up" without having that need drive me nuts?
Yesterday's creation idea was to do some calligraphy around the injunctions to not worry in the Sermon on the Mount. A number of us discussed it on Monday night -- we were reading the collection of quotations on Fear in Plain Living by Catherine Whitmire. The first is a Rufus Jones selection that asserts Christ's main point in the sermon on the mount is to get rid of fears and anxieties. We had to go read that to see if we agreed. We found this section, which is at the end of chapter 6 of Matthew (6:25-6:34). Wikipedia labels the whole of chapter 6 as the discourse on ostentation . Read as a whole -- not picking out pieces -- this seems to be a bit of tough love, far more practical advice (worry is not going to help you, stop it) than inspirational. There is a little touch of promise, that Providence will meet the needs as they arise, that i know has been amplified over the nearly nearly two millennia since the new testament was codified.
Unfortunately, there's no simple message there that speaks to what i would like to record. Rufus Jones' piece also doesn't have a compact injunction to write other than the imperfect and blunt, "Stop your unnecessary worries, Cut your excessive anxieties." Oh, Rufus, how much anxiety is not excessive? Which of my worries are necessary?
The group discussed the Buddhist practices that step one away from worries, and i think of the impact of reading http://dogobarrygraham.blogspot.com/ and his strong message to - in my best encapsulation - stop making up stories. I don't think i can articulate well what i'm learning. I don't find myself able to write a reminder to not worry that grounds the reminder in an understanding of *why* not to worry that would be also be motivational. Verse 6:34 of Matthew tries to motivate you not to worry about tomorrow because today has its own "malice" (in Wycliff's translation) -- somehow, i find that simply motivation to worry about today.
Anyhow -- i had had a creative idea: do calligraphy as a gift, imagining some lovely inspiration to not worry, but i now believe that one must convince ones own self that the amygdala's fears need to be held at a distance. Rufus Jones calls it the slavery of fear. Each person will likely come to that by their own road.
I'm still trying to figure out what crochet to do on Saturday night when Christine and i have a needlework date.
Tags: