“Oooo, shiny!” we say of those things that distract us from the task at hand. The world is so full of things that are trivial, but attractive—messages on Facebook, videos on YouTube, leftovers in the refrigerator—that draw us away from what we really mean to do.
What draws you back to what is most important to you, in the face of all distractions?
Baby birds peep and open wide their enormous mouths, calling to their parents to bring more, more. That might sound greedy, but evolution has designed baby birds with wide mouths and shrill voices to enhance their survival. Sometimes you just have to be really clear about what you need.
When has it helped you to ask in no uncertain terms for what you needed?
A being is free only when it can determine and limit its activity.
—Karl Barth
How much of your pattern of work and rest do you determine and how much is set by others?
What could be more romantic than the view from a hot air balloon, floating as the breeze will take you through the dawn sky? Of course, the beauty and romance of a hot air balloon is exactly its inconvenience—you have no rudder, no wings, no control over what direction you will go.
What is the best thing that has happened to you because you ended up somewhere you didn’t intend to go?
“Sabbath observance invites us to stop. It invites us to rest. It asks us to notice that while we rest, the world continues without our help. It invites us to delight in the world’s beauty and abundance.”
―Wendell Berry
What do you delight in that in no way depends upon you?
