Make life happen

Published October 18, 2012

Stockton Sentinel

Stockton, Kansas

It is Monday morning, and a print deadline is hanging over my head. But that’s not the only thing hanging over my head. It is mid-morning, and I am at home, still trying to convince myself that I can make it through the day. I’m not sick—if I was, I would still be in my pj’s. But I have been to the fitness center to try to loosen up a little. It’s not just that it is Monday morning. Something crept in overnight and has overwhelmed me with pain. If you live with fibromyalgia or any other chronic pain, you know this feeling. Every night before I go to bed I take a muscle relaxer that helps me sleep. But when I awake in the morning and feel like I was thrown under a bus during the night, I wonder how much worse I would feel if I hadn’t taken a muscle relaxer.

I know it sounds like I had too much whine for breakfast, and perhaps that is true. Very soon I will get ready for my (shortened) day of work and leave my slippers by the bed. And I will get through it, because I always do. I simply need a little extra time this morning to convince myself that I can.

It has been during this slow-motion morning that I recalled a book that I used to have. I loaned it out to someone many years ago, and it never came back. Maybe that person needed it worse than I did. Or maybe she didn’t take the time to type out and save half of the book, so that I would have it to reflect on during a day like today. The name of the book is “When I Relax I Feel Guilty,” written by Tim Hansel. For obvious reasons, you can see why the book came to my mind this morning.

Since I no longer have the book, I went to my typed notes to retrieve something to think about this morning and share with you. These thoughts are good for everyone, regardless of your own situation or place and time in life. It is labeled simply, “Make Life Happen.”

­ Make time to think, for it is the source of power.

­ Make time to play, because that is the source of freedom, spontaneity, relaxation, and the secret of youth.

­ Make time to read, for that is the foundation of knowledge.

­ Make time to worship, for that is the pathway of blessing, and washes the dust of earth from our eyes.

­ Make time to help and enjoy friends, for there is no other happiness that can match this.

­ Make time to love, for if you don’t it will fade away, and the greatest sacrament of life will be lost.

­ Make time to laugh and pray, for those are the two things that lighten life’s loads.

­ Make time to be alone with God, for this is not only the greatest privilege of life, but the source of everything else we do.