the community blog of vine & branches christian community - a journal of who we are and what we're going through as a community of faith
Pray with us
> 22nd week in ordinary time
> psalter week 2
> morning prayer
> evening prayer
> night prayer
> lectionary reading
click here to donate to palmer's medical bill fund through vine & branches. your gift through paypal will be tagged for mark's needs. note: paypal does charge a small fee per transaction, can't help that. thank you!
atom xml feed
Recent Posts
> the Psalter
> I'm On, Too!
> I'm On!
> evolution on the horizon
> meeting on the deck
> Thought I'd stick this up here. Just in case any...
> Another Good Quote
> A Quote to Ponder
> weekly meeting time change
> blogging from Idaho
Archives
> April 2002
> May 2002
> June 2002
> July 2002
> August 2002
> September 2002
> October 2002
> November 2002
> December 2002
> January 2003
> February 2003
> March 2003
> April 2003
> May 2003
> June 2003
> July 2003
> August 2003
> September 2003
> October 2003
> November 2003
> March 2004
> May 2004
> June 2004
> July 2004
> August 2004
> September 2004
> October 2004
> November 2004
> December 2004
> January 2005
> February 2005
> March 2005
> April 2005
> May 2005
> July 2005
> August 2005
Anxiety
A Quote from Thomas Merton
In our age everything has to be a "problem." Ours is a time of anxiety because we have willed it to be so. Our anxiety is not imposed on us by force from outside. We impose it on our world and upon one another from within ourselves.
Sanctity in such an age means, no doubt, traveling from the area of anxiety to the area in which there is no anxiety or perhaps it may mean learning, from God, to be without anxiety in the midst of anxiety.
As I've read this over and over, I have no doubt that I sometimes struggle with anxiety. I don't like being anxious. I don't like feeling stressed. I agree with Merton that I think some of that we certainly bring on ourselves but the bigger question to me is how do we learn "to be without anxiety in the midst of anxiety?"
Thoughts?
| posted by Bryan | 9:47 PM |
4 comments
That's a good one Bryan. I've thought about that a bit. I think he's right on. I really believe like 90% of our anxiety of stress are associated with self-imposed life and work junk. Part of the solution would be to stop imposing things onto ourselves. I think this is associated with our need to "feel" successful or like we're accomplishing something. If we don't have these "jobs" with "deadlines" that we conquer, we don't feel like we've gotten anything done. This is just mentally dangerous. Alan, I think there are, Bryan. The problem(?) is that I think they are the same things we are already doing - just that we keep on doing them without giving up, for a long time. I think the changes we need to make, and this is a little bit "catch 22", are more attitudinal than actional. I mean, our attitude about what we're doing - the normal spiritual life things, needs to shift a bit. We don't necessarily need to add a bunch of big fancy new activities. Yep, makes sense Alan. Good perspective. Thanks for the input. 4 Comments:
Even in the work world, most of the things we do are built around self-imposed deadlines. It's harder to control in those settings, but we can learn how to be more balanced people all round. The integration of our "spiritual lives" into all of life in general is huge here I think. "Praying always" - getting the clue that we can simply be paying attention to God and be "praying" is big one.
Yeah, what you said makes perfect sense. I guess I was thinking more along the lines of is there more I can do on the spiritual front that would help me deal with anxiety better when it comes?
Now, we may need to weave some actions into our rhythm, but if our attitude continues to be that these things are what will solve our problem with anxiety or anger or whatever, then we will continue to be frustrated. I hope that made any sense.