This morning I was thinking how Jesus said we would be pruned if we were "bearing fruit". The image of branches being cut back brought another picture - I have had parts of myself cut out!
Cutting away of parts of the grapevine is creative, but all pain and suffering is not creative. It can be difficult to separate good suffering from bad suffering because we live in a society which is in hectic pursuit of happiness. Viewed as an enemy, it will be resisted and fled from at every opportunity.
Yet, if the goal of my life is not about happiness, but about living, I realize that living cannot exist without some suffering. So instead of running from it, I chose to move with it or through it - and with creativity. That is why I made "plans" posted earlier.
I never thought I would be in this position, but when I worked as a hospice chaplain, I used to work with the ones dying to make a plan for each loss they would experience as it came.
One lady knew she would eventually lose her eyesight - so we talked about a plan for her. Crazy, funny (but real) things she could do. Like being massaged more, experimenting with various essential oils to smell, listening to playlists of her favorite music, slow tasting of her favorite flavors of food, having someone read to her and the list goes on. Just talking about the plan made her feel less anxious and also gave her back some control. We laughed and that empty "black hole" that she saw in her mind became filled with things. She actually died before any of this happened, But her anxiety and depression was lifted for awhile which helped her to live in the moment of now.
Cutting away of parts of the grapevine is creative, but all pain and suffering is not creative. It can be difficult to separate good suffering from bad suffering because we live in a society which is in hectic pursuit of happiness. Viewed as an enemy, it will be resisted and fled from at every opportunity.
Yet, if the goal of my life is not about happiness, but about living, I realize that living cannot exist without some suffering. So instead of running from it, I chose to move with it or through it - and with creativity. That is why I made "plans" posted earlier.
I never thought I would be in this position, but when I worked as a hospice chaplain, I used to work with the ones dying to make a plan for each loss they would experience as it came.
One lady knew she would eventually lose her eyesight - so we talked about a plan for her. Crazy, funny (but real) things she could do. Like being massaged more, experimenting with various essential oils to smell, listening to playlists of her favorite music, slow tasting of her favorite flavors of food, having someone read to her and the list goes on. Just talking about the plan made her feel less anxious and also gave her back some control. We laughed and that empty "black hole" that she saw in her mind became filled with things. She actually died before any of this happened, But her anxiety and depression was lifted for awhile which helped her to live in the moment of now.
