Yesterday someone mentioned something wonderful about living in northern Indiana - we have a definite contrasting experience of the seasons of the year!  I needed to hear that again since I know a few words have escaped my lips complaining about how much cold and snow we have had so far.  As I look out my window while writing this there is no beauty to behold - just the slush.  Oh, there are patches of unmessed-with snow, but so what?

So much is cyclical about life.  It seems like it would be nice if we could build on our good experiences and arrange for more, without having to go through the dips that are on the way.  But richness really is added to life by experiencing the unpleasant along with the pleasant.  Of course we never pray for unpleasant times so that we can experience the good times more fully, even though we know that is what happens.

I know that whenever I am resisting what is real I am causing myself more misery.  When I can truly open my arms to the cyclical nature of living I am more fully reconciled to reality, whatever it is, and to the degree I resist the cycles I am hurting myself.  Is it really ok that there is sickness along with health, times of lack along with times of plenty, tragedy along with triumph, blindness along with epiphany, lows along with highs, deaths along with new births, winters along with springs?  How about  I just freshly welcome it all?

When it comes to the galaxy we are in there are a lot of cycles - the same spot on earth reappears every 24 hours, the earth reaches the same spot in its cycle around the sun every year, etc. And within those cycles there are innumerably more cycles.  Things come and go, go and come.  This is the nature of life.

It is interesting to me that in this world of cycles there is one thing that stays the same and that thing is the source of our life here on earth - the Great Light, the sun.  It centers everything else.  Of course you know where I am going with this, so let's just go there!  "The true light that gives light to every [person] was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him."  (John 1:9,10)  The Center was entering the chaos, but He was not recognized as the Center.

We sing the song occasionally, "Jesus, Be The Center"  I think that is like singing, "Water, be wet.".  Water is wet; we don't need to ask it to be.  I believe Jesus is the Center - we don't need to ask Him to be.  Seems like when we are asking Jesus to be the Center, it's really us being the Center, telling him where to be!  Now, I know what the song is trying to say, but I still change the words sometimes to reflect reality.

To the degree that a person is centered in that which is eternally Strong and Good and Constant, he/she will be open to whatever cycles there are, knowing that it all has meaning and does not need to be resisted but can be embraced and lived into.

"God I confess I often live as though I am the center around which life should revolve.  It leads to misery, since that is so far from the truth.  Help me to continue to accept the freeing truth that whatever this day, this week, this month, this year, this decade holds, there is a Center in which to rest, and it isn't me.  In this moment I say 'thank you' for that.  Amen"

 I work with individuals, couples, and families to identify the ways of life and death in their lives and help uncover the motivation to choose that which leads to life, whether it be through counseling or spiritual direction.  - Sheldon Swartz, MA/LMFT