Getting Ready

I've told you that I buy my music in fits, having heard of possible cds, and tucked their titles and artist's name in various places around my home, the way our local squirrels plant peanuts among my geraniums. Another of the cds I got in my most recent blitz was Big Old Life, by Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem, the former being a female folksinger with a voice as clear as mountain air and the latter evidently being these three guys! I think they're from Washington State, but we shouldn't hold that against 'em.

Anyway, they sing this folksy gospel-ly stuff that makes your foot tap and your heart light. It is good for me right now to listen to this sort of thing. Every day seems to need its own encouragement, and since I'm all too aware of the limitations of what I can provide for myself, I turn to outside sources, to keep "oil in my lamp," as it were.

Big Old Life has been more than a mood-lifter for me. The first song has articulated a purpose for my living in this "in-between." The song is titled, "Joy Comes Back," and it was written by Sean Staples, who I have to believe is part of the singing "Staples Singers" family and not connected with the office supply chain. The lyrics go something like this:

I wanna be ready, when Joy comes back to me.// I've been downhearted, but I won't be down too long.// I've been too long cryin'; I ain't gonna cry no more.// I was tied to the ground, but I'm getting lighter every day.// I've been surrounded by midnight, but the sun's gonna shine today.// I wanna be ready, when joy comes back to me.

As I said, I find the song encouraging-- it points me in the right direction! Yet it also poses a challenge: Just how do I "get ready" for joy to come back to me?

Well, like I said, I do what I can with what I've got inside. And I look to things I've read and things I've learned to reinforce my preparations.

Along the lines of the first, I return to William Bridges' Transitions. Let me just post this series of quotes:

"[T]he natural developmental pattern is not for people to keep the same dreams but to relinquish old dreams and generate new ones throughout their life times."

"The emphasis on success often stands in the way of people's doing what really interests them and makes them happy."

"People who have discounted or blocked out the inner callings from the future have cut themselves off from the very signals that really vital people use to stay on the paths of their own development." And:

"During your time in the neutral zone, you are receiving signals and cues-- if only you could decipher them!-- as to what you need to become for the next stage of your work life. And, unless you disrupt it by trying to rush through the neutral zone quickly, you are slowly being transformed into the person you need to be to move forward in your life."

Well, let me say, the very slowness of this transformation is part of what tempts one (me!) to "rush" through this "neutral zone" I'm in! So how do I slow down, and let this transformation come about? Or better, more in my own self-understanding, how do I relax and let God be God, and give God time enough to bring about this transformation in and of me?

Well, by focusing on what I've learned! And here is where Scripture is its own constant reminder. I'll just post these two verses from Philippians 4 (8&9):

"Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you."

And so it is... May it also be for you... Blessings!