Thursday, May 29, 2008

Psalm 90 - Teach Us to Count Our Days

The 90th Psalm verse 12 is one of my favorites -

"So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart."

Life is short, make sure you don't let yours slip by while you are doing something else.

When we find ourselves preoccupied with what happened in the past or what is going to happen in the future it's a good practice to slow down, breathe deeply, become aware of the present and consider all the things we have to be thankful for - right now.

Today we can practice being thankful for family and friends, fresh air and clean water, food and shelter, the flowers of spring, sunshine and air - all the small and not so small things that we sometimes neglect because we are so busy thinking about, and sometimes worrying what happened or what's going to happen.

One of the best and hardest things we can work on is to choose how we will respond to events in the present moment.

Being able to choose how we respond, rather than just reacting, requires we slow down and pause between a stimulus and our response - maybe just long enough to take a slow deep breath to help us put things in perspective, develop a sense of equanimity when stressed, and gratitude and joy when we notice the good things.