I have been known to say that in my thirties, my body's message to me was to exercise. In my forties, my body said "stretch or else; and by the way, still exercise." When I turned fifty a few years ago, I felt the need to slow my pace and meditate. I had already practiced mini-meditations to help endure breast cancer treatment the first time around. One of the main forms of this was to find a color in the room and then try to mentally travel to the pleasant places in my life where that color existed. Sometimes I would reflect on the words of a song.
Even since medical school, I would sometimes use the Book of Psalms. One way would be to start somewhere and just keep reading psalms until feeling more at peace. Another way is to use the calendar day of the month. For example, today is the 8th of February. I would then read Psalm 8 and then add 30 to read Psalm 38, then add another 30 to read Psalm 68 and so on. Keeping up with this pattern, I could read the whole book of 150 psalms in one month's time.
The pandemic brought many changes, both positive and negative. One of the best changes for me was getting a dog. Zeke is a big seventy pound Shepherd-Husky mix, and he requires at least an hour of walking every day. This has finally gotten me out into the neighborhoods behind the house and to a number of parks in the area. Along these walks, nature is very much on display or audible in the cases of birds and squirrels and other dogs. The smallest flower or the largest tree may become a subject or meditation on this theme or that. The sky shows off the skills of the Heavenly Artist. I have said to God that no one else can paint the sky.
This winter, feeling both chilly and more tired than usual, I have often found myself seated in front of the west-facing windows of the house as the sun goes down in the southwest. The mid-to-late afternoon sun warms the room. Looking to the light is a physical action but it can also be a mental action and a spiritual action. What having I been thinking about or discussing with friends? Have I been turning my eyes up on Jesus, praying, looking to and listening to the Light of the World, or have I been focused on the issues and the evils all around? There is is much to draw one's attention these days, almost a magnet of mayhem to draw us all in. Facing the light, I am reminded of what does not depend upon human effort.
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None of us causes the sun to rise or set nor the Earth to orbit around the sun. By the way, the Earth travels 1.6 million miles a day in its orbit at 67,000 miles per hour! None of us can cause this to happen nor prevent it from happening. Let there be light! Let the warm, sunny afternoons remind us of the grace of our existence so that when the cold and gray days like today come around, we can remain hopeful for the return of more beautiful days. Even though the sun is over 90 million miles from us, we still enjoy and depend upon both light and heat radiating from it.
What we choose to look at, to listen to, to take in will truly affect us. These days, there have been many distractions trying to capture our attention and to stir our affections. In disorienting weather conditions, a lighthouse will keep a boat from crashing into the rocks. For me, in this season, I have had to refocus and hold on firmly to the more deep and lasting light of truth amidst a lot of uncertainty. I have also been reflecting on how best to follow the mandate of Jesus who said, "love your enemies." What does that kind of love look like? It takes looking toward the light, reflecting upon it, soaking it in, listening to the true Word, becoming one with the light.
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness,only light can do that." said Martin Luther King, Jr. "Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."
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