I just read an essay in Sunset Magazine by Anne Lamott. I loved her book Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith and enjoy her take on becoming a writer. I'd recommend anything she writes, because she's honest and real and conveys her message in writing that is without peer.
In the essay, she talks about taking time to slow down for at least a half hour a day. It's advice that I need to take. I think I need to evaluate the kinds of commitments I make and determine which I should take out of my life.
When I was a missionary in Switzerland, I had a conversation with a woman about prayer. Apparently, she had read a study that indicated that people who practice prayer or meditation are generally more healthy in both body and mind. I liked the idea that science could get behind prayer. But it also made me wonder what science would find as the connection between prayer and wellness. In the end, I came up with my own hypothesis and I'm pretty sure that Anne would be on my side. When we slow down and ponder the things we are grateful for, the things we are in need of, and the many ways we are blessed, it seems only natural that we would in turn feel more peace in our lives. This slowing down, even if only for a short time during the day, brings more stillness to our minds, helping us break away from the frenzy that our lives can sometimes become.
Life is so full of real things that have nothing to do with Twitter, Facebook, or my work calendar and e-mail. It's time for me to turn it off at some point during the day and live in real life. Hopefully, for me, that also means more writing.
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