I have been feeling a bit in the muck of it lately.  You know the feeling when life gets a bit heavy, your mind gets way too crowded and your heart and time feel squeezed.   You see my youthful 85-year-old mom had knee replacement surgery last week involving hospitalization and a stint in rehab.  I try to remind myself that this is a short term ‘problem’ that will give her more freedom and independence as she ages and not a life-threatening illness.   Thank God.   But, the rest of life went on happening while I tried to hold all the pieces together, sometimes with less grace than I would like.  What do you do when it feels like the walls are closing in on you?  How do you maintain a semblance of boundaries? And what practices do you do to keep your head above water?   Christian music artist Lauren Daigle would suggest we look up! 

Where are You now
When all I feel is doubt?
Oh, where are You now
When I can’t figure it out?

Oh I, I-I-I, I hear You say
I hear You say

Look up child, ayy
Look up child, ayy
Look up child, ayy
Look up child, ayy
Look up

You’re not threatened by the war
You’re not shaken by the storm
I know You’re in control
Even in our suffering
Even when it can’t be seen
I know You’re in control

Oh I, I-I-I, I hear You say
I hear You say

Look up child, ayy

This song has given me a lot of hope and yes, a gentle reminder that I do not hold it all together, God does.  I think it is human nature to focus on the details and problems of our lives and make this our headline story rather than it being simple what it is, our current reality which is always shifting.  In a few months this heaviness will have turned to vapor and most likely completely dissipate, a memory with the weight of nothing really.  Our minds give weight to our so-called problems and sometimes we invite them to take up space in our bodies and hearts. 

So again, I ask you what practices do you turn to, to help you let go of the weight of your own problems.  Since they are your ‘problems’ you get to choose how much weight and space they take up.   One technique that always works for me is to do as Lauren Daigle suggests and look up, to widen my vision, my perspective and to get out in nature and marvel at all that God has created.  Paul alludes to this in Romans 1:20- For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made. 

Such beauty He has created…all of it…even the messy stuff.  All fuel for our growth and to see him in the big – all of the divinity in nature and the small, the muckiness of our lives.  This reminds me of another verse from the New Testament from 2 Corinthians- For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.- 2 Corinthians 4: 17.  How easy it is for us to loose faith because we become so mired in the small details of our lives that we become over focused on what we see before us.   We forget that we do not need to hold it all together, God does.  This is so reassuring when we are feeling stuck or overwhelmed.  I know this simple thought helped me to rise above my situation and all the details and just leave them at God’s feet. 

The idea that true faith involves trusting in the unseen, including God and his plans for us reminds me of the basic tenet from yoga philosophy and Buddhist principles.   Yoga philosophy teaches us that overidentifying with prakriti (the changing or transient) as opposed to identifying with purusha (the unchanging/ eternal) leads to suffering.  This aligns with the Buddhist 4 noble truths taught by the Buddha that remind us that life is inherently filled with suffering but mostly because of our attachments to the changing variables.  (prakriti) When we work to release our attachments, we become liberated as we focus more on the unchanging backdrop of our life, Christians call this God.

When discussing these principles teachers often come back to nature to help us understand, something Jesus often did in his teachings and parables.  So purusha could be compared to the clear blue sky the backdrop where everything else is written upon. The clouds are like prakriti, like the details of our lives, our so-called problems, always shifting and changing.  Did you every stop to really watch the sky and see how quickly clouds shift and change and completely dissipate?  One of my favorite quotes from Buddhist monk Pema Chodron is “you are the sky, everything else – it’s just the weather.”  Really reflect on that and next time you feel overwhelmed “Look up child”.

 In the challenges we face living a spiritual experience in human form it can be helpful to remember some of these basic principles that have helped humans make peace with their reality for thousands of years.  The basic principles are there but we choose how to use them to navigate the circumstances of our lives with as much grace as we can.  Grace is a key word here because we fail, we fall, we judge we suffer.  BUT we pick ourselves up again and again, find what truly feeds us and we remember, sometimes by looking up just what we are made of.  You see God created the world but he also created you.  – For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.   Sometimes the chaos of prakriti the changing – shifting details of our lives are so predominant, during those times remember that there is movement like the shifting of the weather and the clouds.  Underneath it all there is brilliance, there is the peace of purusha like the brightest blue sky, ever present even on the cloudiest day.