Like yours, my life is a continual work in progress. I understand that life is a journey that is forever unfolding before us. One day our lives can be filled with promise and the next minute, second, month, or day we can suffer from unimaginable catastrophe.
I told my story of love and great loss to a young woman one day and she said, "You just always seem so calm." I chuckled because if you ask my children, they will tell you, "There were days when we worried so much about our mom. She was so out of balance."
I read somewhere that, "We come into this world headfirst and go out feet first; in between, it is all a matter of balance."
Over this weekend I thought about the things that give us balance in life.
When I live in balance, I realize I don't spend more time in church than at home. When I live for God, I don't give more tithe than I save money. And I don't help the needy and poor without providing for my children.
Balance in life is what makes life worth living.
Thomas Merton once said, "Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony."
What do we believe God expects of us? He expects us to live a balanced life. To work, play, and love in equal measure.
When we can love the homeless person more than someone in our home...that is not balance.
When we can give to the poor more than we can to our families (in time and money) that is not balance.
If I talk to God more than my own children, that is not balance. That is not God. That is not love.
When we truly walk with balance, we understand that order in all things is what the Creator expects of us.
I realized this weekend, that if our lives were everything we wanted them to be, you know the social media images and lives we compare ourselves to, what would our purpose be for being here?
Balance is about being challenged. Balance is about overcoming. If I never have to struggle, I never have to have anything to aim for. The challenges we face are as fundamental to our lives learning balance as every breath we take.
We are out of balance when we compare our lives to where our friends and families appear to be in their own lives. When we believe in some arbitrary life plan that says we must have, be, or do something, by a certain timeframe in our lives, and we are not, we are out of balance.
The unhappiness we experience is a direct result of being out of balance along our journey. This misperception is caused by not understanding the purpose of challenges. Challenges come to make us strong, they come to help us get back into balance.
Life is school. My dad used to say that the earth is a giant petri dish, and everything we encounter is here to teach us lessons.
And the final lesson, the one challenge we are here to overcome, is all about love. Love for ourselves and others.
And each time we face a new challenge it is simply because we didn't get the lesson the last time. Life will continue to give you the test. Learn to lean into the challenge and ask, "What is this challenge trying to teach me about myself?"
Because you see, the lesson is never about anyone else.
There will be times, like in my life, when life knocks the wind out of your sails. When you lose a love that is so great, it's like losing your own life. But that is when we need to step back and reflect on what the lesson was meant to teach us. For me, it simply meant to teach me to love unconditionally.
A lesson that I have taken to heart.
Today as we begin this work week, seek balance in your life. Let the rhythms of life lead you and know this:
"The calm and balanced mind is the strong and great mind; the hurried and agitated mind the weak one."
Have a happy balanced Monday and week!
Attention Bias
What is attention bias? Attention bias is our tendency to prioritize certain types of stimuli/information over others. At any given moment, an individual's senses can perceive countless stimuli in our immediate surroundings. Threat-related attention bias refers to the tendency to prioritize the processing of threats over benign or neutral stimuli. Is it no wonder we have biases related to race, ethnicity, disability, and more?
Each of us individually generates more information than ever before in human history. We take in almost 90,000 pieces of information daily, yet our brains can only filter in about 10 percent of that information. The rest, well is stored in our subconscious minds and often when we perceive a threat we act upon it.
How do you perceive the world around you and how can you understand your attention bias?
The WEBB Advisory Group Presents
The WEBB Center For Social Impact was developed and designed from more than 50 years of lived experience as a Black Woman in America.
Focusing on domestic policy specifically, our institute provides a global worldview perspective for black and brown women from the diaspora living in America today.
Using research data, lived experiences, and stories of impact, policymakers and leaders can understand the social impacts various policies have on black and brown children and women, today and tomorrow.
In response to various incidents in our country's recent history, history mustn't repeat itself. Therefore, the WEBB Center For Social Impact strives to provide voter information, information on issues for policymakers, information for community activists, and information for anyone who seeks to understand the social impacts of public policy on individuals and communities.
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Prayer for the Week
Dear God,
I know that You have created us with a purpose and plan. I know you desire that we live lives filled with a balance of love, joy, and purpose. Help us walk along this path towards our destiny. Remind us that busyness isn't business. And that you have called us to be fruitful, not busy. Thank you for your presence and for helping us to grow through our challenges.
Amen.
"Inspiring Humans...Changing Communities."
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