July 6
What is at the Eye of the Storm?
Serenity is the alignment of three knowledges
1. Knowing that I am not without skill, talent, gifts.
2. Knowing that I am not without community, connection, comfort.
3. Knowing that I am not without G-d, whether or not I believe G-d is able to intervene.
When I am in full or even partial possession of these three I am safe from storm, or no, drought or no, fiery hairy pestilence and without this knowledge everything is storm, drought and pestilence, no matter what anyone else says or all evidence to the contrary. I will make my own mess when bereft. I will pay a large price for ignoring the facts and the lion’s share of this loss is loss of my serenity.
Disrupt the effectiveness of negativity
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THE BEAR
Living with my disease is like having
A sleeping Bear in the house.
I knew it was there, could hear it snore.
I never felt comfortable or able to turn my back
On it and get on with my life.
I felt under certain threat.
Fearing the bear would wake
When my attention was elsewhere
I proceeded to poke it with a stick.
I prodded it to wakefulness
In retrospect it is clear I was unprepared
For a wakeful bear.
Even with my full attention fixed on the brute
The Bear, which is my disease, roamed about the house
And made forays out into the world.
I had no plan or tool for these events
Finding a legion of people who had worked out
Living arrangements with their Bears
I happily joined their ranks.
My Bear wakes and sleeps at its will
But I am no longer afraid or unskilled
At handling this creature
Today I am so grateful for the Bear in my life.
I would never want a life without it
I live in a world filled with Bears
And would be at a loss as how to exist
If not for the practice and success
With the Bear that is my own.
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