Thursday 12 May 2016

Declining to serve tea



We walk our tracks over mountains, through vast plains that extend to far horizons; in pastures green and beside still waters, through the rubble of valleys of Baca where we twist our ankles on loose stones and get scratched by the many thistles. The landscape varies, the journey continues; it’s all one, it’s all the way home, we take our way together.

This particular stretch of the journey is proving to be one of the more challenging miles to go. I am having to use all my strategies to calm anxiety, talk myself out of resentment and bitterness, disarm frustration and just darned well keep on going. A journey of a thousand miles is accomplished one step at a time. Peace is every step.

Sometimes in a particular prayer ritual I find a way through to the still small voice, and so I did this morning. I took into my prayer what the psalmist calls “the voice of my complaining”, and laid out my difficulties before almighty God.

Swift as an arrow came the response (as is so often the case, when I bother to ask).

“Let it be where it is,” he said. And I understood what he meant. The things that bother me – let them start where they start, stop where they stop, just don’t take them home, invite them in, feed them up and encourage them to bring their friends home too.

As Suzuki put it, “Let your thoughts come and let them go; just don’t serve them tea.”

This was the beginning to a new constructive strategy. Let’s see how it goes.



14 comments:

Sandra Ann said...

Yes totally agree with you! Needed to read this today, thank you dear friend X

Pen Wilcock said...

:0) xx

Julie B. said...

xoxoxoxo

Pen Wilcock said...

:0) xx Waving!!

Judy Olson said...

Thank goodness! I thought you were giving up tea! :-)

“The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.” - Henry W. Longfellow

Anne Booth said...

That's really helpful.

Tech Teacher said...

Thank you for this truth.
I am in this place and have been for a long time.
This moment, I will do this plan. When the next moment comes, I will recommit to it.

It is a small life living moment to moment, but in it I can be brave because I am God's child. And I can be kind because everyone else is, too.
One moment at a time.

Peace and grace to you.... you are not alone.

Pen Wilcock said...

Hello friends!

Judy - heheh - odd you say that - as it happens I have (O the wrench!) given up tea, my beloved Early Grey tea, because under present stress my fibromyalgia is raging and every little cell says "Ow!" So tea, coffee, booze, sugar, wheat and dairy have been banished - and that does help.

Anne - hello - waving!

Tech Teacher - yes, one moment, one step at a time.

Pen Wilcock said...

Judy - Longfellow, eh? I saw that quote online the other day and I'm sure the person attributed it to someone else (usually Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, the Buddha or Rumi, isn't it!)

Sandy said...

“Let your thoughts come and let them go; just don’t serve them tea.”
I should tattoo this statement on my arm so that I can look at it always. I struggle so with racing thoughts and too much worry and anxiety. Thank you for sharing this!

Judy Olson said...

Yes Longfellow! Multiple sources, although I cannot find just where this quote is taken from. I am ALWAYS suspicious of quotes attributed to Einstein, Mother Teresa, the Buddha, George Carlin................

Pen Wilcock said...

Yes!

Anonymous said...

Who is or was Suzuki, not an insightful motorbike I'm sure?

Pen Wilcock said...

Motorbikes should never be underestimated!

But I meant this chap:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunry%C5%AB_Suzuki

:0)