Sometimes, it isn’t even shame. It’s the residue. Things happen. Painful things. Sometimes I have a part, but not always. Sometimes it’s important for me to learn something Bigger. Something I’d never seek out on my own. Genuine humility, for example. Being the right size. When these painful lessons come, I do learn and grow, but I live in an imperfect world and time so along with the necessary growth comes pain that often lingers. It’s all too easy to feel and see only the residue, which, for me at least, is where an active and disciplined practice of gratefulness comes in. There are days, sometimes whole swaths of time, when prayer and meditation and focusing on gratefulness are an absolute slog. “Not “feeling” it.” That’s where patient endurance comes in. One foot in front of the other. One day at a time.
Sometimes, it isn’t even shame. It’s the residue. Things happen. Painful things. Sometimes I have a part, but not always. Sometimes it’s important for me to learn something Bigger. Something I’d never seek out on my own. Genuine humility, for example. Being the right size. When these painful lessons come, I do learn and grow, but I live in an imperfect world and time so along with the necessary growth comes pain that often lingers. It’s all too easy to feel and see only the residue, which, for me at least, is where an active and disciplined practice of gratefulness comes in. There are days, sometimes whole swaths of time, when prayer and meditation and focusing on gratefulness are an absolute slog. “Not “feeling” it.” That’s where patient endurance comes in. One foot in front of the other. One day at a time.
Shame is very painful.