Change The Air

 Change the air is an Italian phrase that says get out of the house and go into open air where there are people with whom you can visit.  So many of us live alone or in cramped conditions, that I think spiritual fitness might require that we get out of our little world, our electronic world and go visit with people in the outdoors or outdoor cafe.  I can meditate in silence and solitude but  I need to balance this with some communal activity free of any electronic devices.  Be with flesh and blood people.  There is a time to get into myself and a time to get out of myself, to practice social graces.  

Change Of Time

 For reasons that escape me, the time of my posting for several blogs ended up being late at night instead of early in the morning.  So you would not have seen the blog posted on FB until late that night.  Some people can go directly to the blog and its posting time is not an issue.  But I did not panic.  Rather I fixed what ones I could find.  The point?  When things seem to be going sideways in plans, do what you can to fix it and then move on.  Most of our plans are not life and death issues.  

Spiritual Books

 People read the Bible or the Big Book, and say they have questions or they do not understand something.  Well, God, your Higher Power has questions for you.  So why not start there.  Read more slowly, not looking for answers but for identification.  Are you the problem these books are writing about?  Are you like the persons who are being written about, problematic persons, selfish, scheming, lying, resentful, that the Bible and the Big Book are addressing?  Do you drink like the people in the Big Book?  It is not firstly about “understanding” alcoholism, but about finding out if you do what these drunks did to self-heal.  Do you put milk into your drink?  Do you make resolutions and don’t keep them?  Are you selfish, self-willed run riot?  Do you drink like the jay walker?  Are you introvert when dry and grandiose when drunk?  And so on.  Later, after a few steps you can ask questions.  

Love

 Love is an emotion.  It comes and goes.  To say, “I love you,” may be nothing more than feeling the emotion of love.  No action.  No commitment.  No ego-shrinkage.  To actually love someone takes work.  If someone said, “I love golf,” but only plays when they feel like it and never does the hard grinding practice to do it better, you would think they do not really love golf.  The same goes with marriage, vocation, hobby.  These take work on a daily basis that goes beyond the emotions of “love.”  I might not always love being a priest, or putting out this blog, but I do it.  I don’t wait for some emotion to come along and carry me.  Until death do us part!

Yes

The 12 Apostles are these twelve because they said, “Yes.”  It is not because they were holy, or smart, or disciplined.  It all started with saying yes to an invitation, “Follow me.”  So if you are someone who says you want to follow Jesus, start with a “yes.”  Nothing more is needed to begin.  A very badly lived life can begin to change with a yes.  In recovery, you don’t have to be good or smart or holy to begin recovery from alcoholism.  You start with a yes.  If you start with “I cannot do all this,” or “this won’t work,” then you will stay drinking to insanity and death.  Just start with yes, not with understanding or judgment.  Yes and then begin to do what is asked, imperfectly, trudging along.  Action, not perfection, follows yes.  Sobriety does not make you a saint, but it does give you a chance at being a much better person.   

Sameness

 If you find something written that helps you to pray, why not repeat it on a regular basis?  Say you find the poet Rilke to help you to pray.  Why then look for other poets?  Keep with Rilke.  It is about prayer aids.  Many people pray the psalms from the Bible on a daily basis.  Monks do this.  Keeping at what works opens up to deeper layers of the words and deeper layers in ourself.  Trying to find something “even better” is a bit of an ego trip or spiritual gluttony.  

12 Inch Voice

 Praying aloud can help you to pay attention.  You can do this in public places. How?  Use what teachers call the “12 inch voice.”  If I typed this blog in 12 inch font you would need a magnifier to read it.  12 inch refers to font size.  It is small, like a quiet voice that only you can hear though others are around.  The noisier the environment around you, the less anyone will notice or hear you praying in your 12 inch voice.  No one listens to my homilies, so why should they listen to my 12 inch voice!  Say it isn’t so Knoxville and Boulder.