I woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at about 4:15am. I slept a really long time the night before. So I think this is just my body adjusting to get my usual 6 hours of sleep (it is enough for me - I have the Sleepless Elite gene).
Boxing Day Reflection
Type Two EnneaThought® for December 26th
On Boxing Day, which can be a day of recovery from celebrations, quietly reflect on your blessings. As a Two, consider the ways you are blessed with radiant joy, grace, and natural kindness. (Personality Types, 59)
I am using this prompt for my freewrite this early Thursday morning.
This will be a day of recovery from celebrations. We were going to go away, but leaving today was flatly rejected when I asked the crew about it. So, I will use this day to reflect.
I will consider the way I am blessed with radiant joy, grace, and natural kindness. Wait, this is sort of a hard thing to do! I can think of how I am blessed in my life:
- Family time at Christmas Eve service and around the Advent Wreath. I love that they all love to do this as a family together.
- A wonderful mother-in-law that I feel totally comfortable with - so much so that I always have to fight against falling asleep on her couch!
- I love the laid-back quality of our day with opening presents and eating breakfast.
- I just loved the laid-back quality of the whole Christmas Season. We went to one evening party and had a lovely time at John & Katherine's Christmas Eve brunch. There were other parties, but we were not able to go. It was also lovely just having spiritual direction time with so many lovely ladies who sit in my chair and tell me how God is working in their lives.
- Morning after morning of Advent meditations and contemplations in Scripture and talking to God about all of that. Meditating in Messiah. So sweetly serene.
But this question in the prompt just sort of stumps me: "consider the ways you are blessed with radiant joy, grace, and natural kindness." It is harder for me because it makes me feel like I am bragging. But here goes:
Radiant Joy - Well, my dearest father named me Carol which means "Song of Joy." I was supposed to be a Karen ("pure one"), but he took one look at me and he knew I was a Carol. I feel like that was a God moment that started my life. It was this kiss of blessing from my father on earth and my Father above. I am a joyful person. Most people describe me (the timer is going off, but I am going to keep going because I finally got enough nerve to answer this question) as a joyful person. I get the words vivacious, lively, and the one that people keep saying over and over again to me after they have spent time with me is life-giving. (I think George is also very life-giving. So we get that often when people spend time in our home.) I do fill a room with joy. And it is not forced. I actually feel such joy in my heart most of the time. I am so BLESSED. I am so GRATEFUL. So there you go.
Radiant Grace - I am very quick to forgive people. It was hard for me this week to have to relive past things that happened because I had forgiven and moved on, but I had to go there because the person had not forgiven. So I extend grace to people all the time. I can always improve on this, but I love to give people the benefit of the doubt and try to practice the Ignatian Plus One principle:
Ignatius says that we “ought to be more eager to put a good interpretation on a neighbor’s statement than to condemn it.”
Always give people the benefit of the doubt. What’s more, says Ignatius, if you’re not sure what a person means, you should, says Ignatius, “ask how the other means it.” Ignatius placed that crucial advice at the beginning of the Exercises to ensure that both...[people] don’t misunderstand each other. Each presupposes that the other is trying to do his or her best.[1]I was severely judged and labeled because certain people made assumptions about my character and meaning behind innocent questions, comments, and conversations. It would have been cleared up if the other would have asked how I mean it. It is so hard when someone labels me. I need to practice it the other way and this situation is a stark reminder of the "Plus Sign."
Most of the time, I think I do radiate grace though. I have so many people that I interact with because of my job with the university, health club, spiritual direction, and our ministry. It is so crucial. I remember misunderstanding something with K a few years back, and clarifying it was so lovely. The people I dealt with this week are not as good at communication though, and I need to extend "radiant grace" for that though.
Natural Kindness - I think this is easy for me. It would be hard for me to be intentionally cruel to someone. I love being kind. I do think it is a natural quality of mine. So again, it is hard for me when someone tells me I meant unkindness when they totally misread what I was trying to do.
Man, that was really uncomfortable for me to do. I don't like to brag about this stuff. I think what triggered me so much this week was that when I was growing up, my mom would interpret things totally different from how I intended them. Cleaning the bathroom for her and her thinking I intentionally put extra Comet in the bathtub to make it gritty because I was mad that she told me to clean it. I LOVED cleaning the bathroom! I loved making it all shiny. The fact that I accidentally forgot to rinse the invisible grit out of the bathtub was interpreted as me being "unkind" and "spiteful" was devasting for me and especially since my mom continued to tell other people this story of my growing up years far into my adult years was even more devastating for me.
There were more incidents of this, and it was so great to have George there to mirror the truth rather than the lie. He has been doing that for me this week too. I am very grateful. He gets me. My good friends get me. Anyone who truly wants to can get me can because I am a "what you see is what you get" kind of gal, and I think that is also a good quality!
OK, I am done. This is too much for me.
Embarrassed to press the button of this freewrite, but I am going to do it.
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