Search

Indicators and Ultimate Things

Admin
Apr 11, 2024
2 min read

Indicators of what is happening.

Explore, evaluate, eliminate.

The ultimate things.

Feelings and emotions are indicators of what is happening to us at any given moment. There are natural stages we must go through as we navigate those feelings and emotions. I’m reminded of this often. Sometimes I react, or navigate, poorly. Sometimes I respond, or navigate, wisely. I have come to accept that I will never be exonerated from the pains and struggles of life. No matter how well I prepare, I will always meet with uncontrollable situations and circumstances that knock me off balance. My feelings and emotions help me recognize when something is happening. And when something is wrong, I’ve learned that the best first response is to pause. This is a powerful tool that buys me a moment to respond wisely, with serenity and with courage.

In her book, Outer Order, Inner Calm, Gretchen Rubin teaches strategies to help us interact with and live in more peace with our physical environment. When the world around us lacks order, we often feel unease. Clearing the physical clutter is a practice that helps us create more inner calm. Three strategies she teaches are to 1. explore, 2. evaluate, and 3. eliminate. This is good practice as we consider our physical world as well as our internal world. Look around. What do we need? What can go? Avoid delay. As Gretchen says, “creating outer order isn’t a matter of having less or having more; it’s a matter of wanting what you have.” And what we truly want should be a healthy, beautiful, complete life.

"No one can know what the ultimate things are. We must take them as we experience them. And if such experience helps make life healthier, more beautiful, more complete, and more satisfactory to yourself and to those you love, you may safely say, ‘This is the grace of God.’” Carl Jung.

What are the ultimate things? We each answer this question the best we can, given our unique experiences and the tools we currently have available to us.

So, may we take time to pause, explore, evaluate, respond, eliminate, and create. May we want what we have as we love and care for our world, our neighbors, and ourselves. And may we be grateful for this grace of God.