The other day, I was charging my phone in my bathroom as I was getting ready. After about 30 minutes, I looked down at my phone and it still hadn’t charged! I was confused…it was plugged in, but nothing was happening. Then it hit me – I hadn’t pressed the “reset” button on my wall plug. I pushed it in and viola! My phone was charging.
Being the introvert that I am, I am constantly making connections in my head. I am always finding deeper meaning in seemingly trivial events and happenings of the day. This got me thinking; how many of us need a reset too?
I know I do!
2016 was a tumultuous year for many. For political reasons, for financial reasons, for health reasons, and some for reasons within our families. As the new year has come upon us, many of us feel that 2017 will bring us a fresh start, to begin anew, to do better this year. But how exactly do we do this? Do we make a list of resolutions and then lose that list at the bottom of our pile of bills, or in the bottom of our purse? Or is it a daily resolution?
One shift I’ve been trying recently to “reset” is to take a look at my inner dialogue. I tend to have more of a melancholic personality, and over-analyze and ruminate on an event or a mishap ad nauseam. This brings me down a lot of times, and I can be extremely hard on myself. So, one of the ways I am going to “reset” this year is to speak more kindly to myself.
The next one, and this is a big one, is how I look at daily chores, obligations, and what we call in my medical field, “activities of daily living”, or ADL’s. So often I find myself saying, “Ugh, I have to go to the grocery store”, or “I have to go to the gym”, or in the morning when I just want to stay in my bed, “Do I have to go to work?” But what if I made a switch – and instead of saying “I have to…”, I say to myself, “I get to…”.
“I have to go to work” becomes “I get to go to work!”
“I have to go to the gym” becomes “I get to go to the gym!”
“I have to go to mass/church/synagogue/mosque” becomes “I get to go to mass/church/synagogue/mosque”
When we shift our thinking of being grateful for the things we get to do, they will seem less cumbersome and more of a gift – a joy, even.
I’m currently reading a book that has really helped me to “reset” my thinking, and it’s called, “When God Weeps”, by Joni Eareckson Tada. On July 30, 1967, at the prime of her life at the age of 18, she dove into Chesapeake Bay after misjudging the shallowness of the water. She suffered a fracture between the fourth and fifth cervical levels and became a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the shoulders down. Now, I won’t give away too much of the story (I’ll let you discover this gem on your own) but Joni went through two years of rehabilitation, according to her autobiography, and she experienced anger, depression, suicidal thoughts, and religious doubts. However, she learned to paint with a brush between her teeth, and began selling her artwork. She also writes this way. To date, she has written over forty books, recorded several musical albums, starred in an autobiographical movie of her life, and is an advocate for disabled people.
She grew incredibly close with God through this ordeal…and to piggyback on my last post about wondering if God is still good in a bad world, she discovered that God suffered with her. Through all of her years of pain, God was with her. He felt her pain on the cross. Even though this horrible thing had happened to her, she grew to feel God’s incredible love for her in a more profound way.
When asked, “If you knew what you knew today, would you have jumped into that lake?”
She said, “I would jump anyway”.
To her, the profound joy she experienced of growing closer to God through her pain and suffering was worth it. The contentment she felt in knowing she was loved, and that God was suffering with her…was worth more than the full use of her body.
To me, that is just incredible.
Friends, we don’t always know what is around the corner. We just have today. So, in 2017, let’s collectively vow to “reset”, and be grateful for the mundane, the obligatory, the boring routines and let’s be grateful that we get to do them. Let’s do them with love this year, and with joy.
Until then, dear readers.
Sheila
Maureen Fry January 27, 2017, 5:09 am
This was a very insightful piece, and I think being grateful has a huge impact in how we feel at any given time. The author you are describing sounds amazing!
Admin January 27, 2017, 5:20 am
I agree! It is an amazing book. She is such an inspiration!