By Wendy Morical
(written while sitting on my new yoga ball chair from the Rummage Sale. Many thanks to the person that donated it!)
Can you picture the old cinematic trope that indicates the passage of time with pages flying off the calendar? Some days, this feels like my reality – and possibly yours, too? Many people I have spoken to lately echo a common theme: we are busy. Busy and tired.
Everyone’s life demands tug at them in different ways. For some, it’s their all-consuming job surrounded by the elements of having and keeping “real life” going. For others, it may be child or elder care, career or housing transition. Life events – births, deaths, illnesses – may have arisen, requiring new expenditures of one’s scarce time. We attend meetings and activities we genuinely wanted to add to our calendar, and we step up to volunteer for other functions about which we have sincere interest… but we’re tired.
I have been thinking about this a great deal lately, since it’s come up in so many conversations with Pilgrim friends. We try to track down the source of this reality, looking for somewhere to lay blame for feeling set upon by the lives we are living so fully. A common conversational theme is to compare the pace of life as it was in an earlier day to our shared experience in 2024. I’ve heard myself engage in this fruitless exchange so often that I have determined it is time to take a more proactive stance.
My first step is to work on changing perspective. Dan Wise and I talked the other day about the joy of connecting with students on campus and how genuinely grateful we both are for the opportunity we’ve had to touch lives through the application of our talents. What a glorious privilege. I am grateful for the work I am still capable of doing and the way it positively impacts young people. How could those responsibilities be a drain or an inconvenience?
Pilgrim asks much of its volunteers, but isn’t it wonderful to play a role in Pilgrim’s good work? Our church’s warm welcome, community outreach, fellowship, and embodiment of God’s message of love wouldn’t be as impactful without the time we give. Thank God I can be a small part of Pilgrim’s work.
Stressful, time-consuming wedding plans? I thank God daily for my beautiful daughter and the joy that she has found. Thinking otherwise is an affront to the Creator who gave her life.
Even pain, illness, and loss give us the opportunity to draw closer to one another, to find reserves of love and support within ourselves to offer those in pain. It is the work of God to bring us together in compassionate care.
Nothing on our calendars lacks God’s presence. Our tremendous responsibility is to accept these daily gifts with gratitude for what they call forth within ourselves. Approaching each day with a cultivated thankfulness has the potential to shift “I have to…” to “I get to…”
Let’s redouble our efforts to live in gratitude. I thank God for my Pilgrim friends who listen, support, and question. Give thanks!