How To See A Situation More Clearly

You are like family to me. Each week as I write these posts, I think of you.

Some of you I know personally. Some, I only got to hug or sing to at some concert or talk. And some of you I haven’t met yet (please introduce yourself to me) 🙂

My intention with everything I write and create is to share with you what I learned through life experience, though training I’ve done, through music as an expression of a soul, through exploring faith and spirituality and through my curiosity about Love and Life. My hope is to reach those of you who might be going through a rough patch in life and to make you feel less alone.

And the tips I offer aren’t some magic formulas…they are just simple tools you can apply – if they resonate with you 🙂

I remember a time when I didn’t want to speak about my struggles because when I did, too many people would say something like “offer it up to God.” To me, that sounded like: “I don’t really want to hear about it. God will help you, not me.”

And so, I kept quiet, praying to God and feeling awful because God wasn’t ‘hearing me.’

And God ‘wasn’t hearing me’ because I blocked God out…. I was expecting God to be somewhere remote and was too scared to listen to the nearness of God’s presence within my own being.

What’s behind ‘offering it up to God’ is a mindset shift. It’s giving up holding on to our position in which we can only see our situation one way. It’s moving aside and allowing ourselves the space from which we will see the situation more clearly – with ease and without as much overwhelm.

But no one explained that to me then 🙂

‘Offering up to God’ means letting go of the illusion that we can control – or fix – the tough stuff all by ourselves. And when we do let go of that control, we will have the humility and grace to go ask for help – whether it’s medical help of trained professionals who can help us heal from depression, anxiety, panic attacks or addictions, or accepting the help of someone in order to find a job or a babysitter.

But we need each other to remind us of that – with compassion, patience, understanding and love.

As we celebrate Labor Day this weekend, I am thinking about how we need to bring a lot more compassion, listening, patience, understanding and love to those who are in charge of the American jobs and workers.