Working on my list

Darren’s weekly musings

May 24^th -30^th

Ticking things off my list

I am sure that many of you know that I am in the midst of big transitions right now.  There are lots of things on my to do list:  satisfying visa requirements, closing off my work with Asbury and West, Southwest Presbytery, Toronto Conference and the United Church, going through my gathered treasures (ie. junk) that I have accumulated over the years, saying good bye to friends, thinking about starting at a new church, new house, new city, even a new country.  It seems like a daunting list, and then you have to add all of the regular things that I do each week and you might wonder how I might possibly get them all done.

All of us have certain points in our lives when things get busier then others.  An emergency comes up and suddenly you have to make some changes to a carefully planned out schedule.  A few changes to routine later and it is easy to become overwhelmed.  

There are a few ways to handle such a situation.  One, is that you can have a meltdown.  “I can’t handle this.  It is just too much.”  This method of dealing with too many things does have a few benefits.  Suddenly you are not the only one feeling upset.  Others feel upset as well.  But that is not a good thing.  And the amount of work that you have to do does not decrease.

A second way of handling a situation of being overloaded, is to pretend to be superman or superwoman.  You try to do so much, tax unknown resources and hoperfully manage to do not a bad job at all.  But one can only do this a few times in life.  If you pretend to be superman or superwoman too often, you suddenly find that you are all too human.  Your body or your mind begin to this overexertion and you begin to show the physical signs of this over use. 

The healthy way of dealing with too many things to do, is to do your best to get through it while realizing your limitations.  Try to do one task at a time.  That way your list slowly gets smaller (I can’t bring world peace today, but I could write that letter to a friend).  Know yourself- know when you have to ask for help and understand what you can handle and how much you can handle.  Prioritize those things that need to get done today, those things that can be done tomorrow, and those things that can wait until next week.  Make sure that items are not permanently stuck on the do next week list.  Laugh knowing that the situation will return to what passes for normal soon.  

Making my A to Z list, Blessings.

Seeing through my eyes

Darren’s weekly musings

May 17^th-23^rd

If you could see through my eyes

In the play and later the movie, Driving Miss Daisy, Hoke is a personal driver for Miss Daisy, a somewhat cantankerous, high-strung woman.  The play shows how Miss Daisy does not want a driver at first.  She uses any excuse to get rid of him.  But Miss Daisy’s son is adamant, she can’t driver herself and she needs a driver.  Slowly, over the course of thirty years, a bond begins to form between Miss Daisy and Hoke.  They develop a friendship.  Hoke becomes her trusted companion.  Towards the end of the movie though, we learn that Hoke has developed cataracts.  Miss Daisy tells her friend that he should no longer be driving with his eyes.  Hoke replies, “How can you know what I see if you can’t see through my eyes?”

And that is what I want to talk about today- our perceptions- and how we see the world.  We can’t see through anyone else’s eyes.  We don’t hear with someone else’s ears.  We don’t feel with someone else’s sense of touch.  Take for example this weeks weather.  After some warm days last weekend, we are experiencing much cooler weather right now.  Some people I observed out the bus window yesterday were dressed as if it was mid January.  They had winter coats on and gloves.  And they didn’t seem to be dressed too warmly. Other people were in short sleeves and shorts.   And they weren’t shivering or looking extremely cold.  It seems people’s perception of yesterday’s weather varied.

You know I love music.  Almost all types of music fill my soul with great joy.  But certain music that my son like fill me with confusion if not outright dread.  In turn, I am sure my Neil Diamond music fills him with confusion and dread.  It is all in the matter of perception.

Travelling in other parts of the world, one can see that people have differing tastes in foods.  I might eat something that I consider very spicy.  Someone else will find it very bland.  Our perceptions are very different.

I think our perceptions also vary when we talk about certain words.  I remember a conversation I had last year with someone who came seeking advice.  In the midst of my mostly listening, I said to the person that they seemed to be looking for justice.  I used a term that is used often in the scripture.  God is God of justice.  We are told that justice should flow like a mighty stream.  That is the church’s view of justice.  In my mind, this person was seeking that justice.

The person coming for advice though had a very different view of justice.  They grew up in a country where the court system was extremely corrupt.  Justice for them was tinged with bias, with bribery, and lack of fairness.  They could not have anything to do with justice.  They didn’t want a God to be God a justice, because justice was so unfair.  I learned that people perceive words very differently.

Hoke is very wise in Driving Miss Daisy.  We don’t all see things the same way.  Things that I take for granted, these things are not perceived the same way by someone else.  I am wrong to think that others sense the world that I do.  I need to realize that my perception of words, sights, and sounds are unique to me and that others don’t share them.  Blessings