Good Evening, God!
This week I am blessed to be going to a Centering Prayer Retreat at Saint Anthony’s Retreat House in the Kalihi Valley. I’m being trained to be a presenter. But, as they say: To teach is to learn twice. And today I realized that the goal of Centering is to keep returning to You — after being distracted by thoughts and feelings, memories and emotions, etc. The goal isn’t a blank mind or even a mind clear of thoughts. It is the gentle effort of returning to our “sacred word” which is a symbol of our intention to open ourselves to You.
I also realized that my Conscious Mind is not designed to comprehend or understand WHAT You are doing in my innermost being. This, is of course, exactly opposite of all of my years of schooling. In school, our conscious mind is trained to retain and make sense of data. But, when I center my conscious mind is clueless. And, I confess, also irritated. My conscious (Western educated) mind feels left out and somehow undervalued.
But, upon prayer and reflection, I can see that BALANCE is being restored. Or should I say, You are rebalancing me. So that I can more fully appreciate what the parts hidden from my conscious mind are doing. Appreciate how my Body is a Self Regulating System of great complexity. Appreciate how much goes on in my innermost being . . .
All of this is humbling for my Conscious Mind which is infatuated with being Queen of the Hill . . . so to speak. Well, it just never occurred to my Conscious Mind that I need to appreciate and respect my Body, Heart and Unconscious.
Hmm. I suspect that the dominate elites in a country are very much like my conscious mind. Unaware. Unappreciative. And without Respect.
Story teller,
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