As I write this, the news cycles are still spinning with intensity from the attempted assassination of a former President of the US just three days ago. And it wasn’t like everything in the world was settled in peaceful existence before that. There is one war of aggression by one one nation against another; another war that has reached the level of genocide and multiple war crimes; and military “exercises” going on in various oceans around the world meant to intimidate and coerce smaller nations, to name a few.
Has the world gone crazy? Today, we wake up knowing all of the everyday things we have to do: go to work, buy groceries, pay bills, care for children and other relatives who are fragile; attend meetings; make decisions; go to the doctor; the list goes on. Today requires that we attend to what life calls for while all of this violence and aggression is going on in the background.

How do we make sense of it all? How do we hold ourselves together, attempting to do and live what is normal for us while so many wild things, so beyond normal, are fighting for our attention?
Our life’s journey, our spiritual journey, offers some help to us. In the midst of all that we have to do today, we can take a moment. And breathe. And allow our bodies to settle into whatever place they are in when we take this breath. And notice.
Notice what rises up in us that belongs to us. It might be love and care for a friend, a family member, or a pet. It might be some curiosity and interest in a project at work or in the garden. It might be words from a favorite song. What comes up first might be fear and anxiety over whatever is happening in the world. Let that pass on through, and look for something to arise that really belongs to us.
Then, choose to connect with it somehow. Engage it more than we did a moment ago by dwelling on it, touching it, listening to it, doing something that acknowledges that this thing that rose up in us is important. And then . . .
We ask: what does this thing that rose up in us, that belongs to us, mean to us? That’s the gold of our life. We take hold of this meaning and work with it and walk with it all day. The things in the world will still be going on, but our intentional work with what we know to be true and real enter the larger meaning of things, and I believe, make a difference. Even if doing this little practice had no effect at all on the world, it has had an effect on us and the people we will engage with today. It matters.
Notice. Connect. Make meaning.
~Robert Patrick
If these kinds of questions and experiences sound familiar, you might find spiritual direction a good way to explore them. Here’s how to get started.
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