Quoting Joysong (bold italics BarbaraTherese)
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Yes, I have my own Rule of Life as it were, although it is more a spirit embraced with horarium. I also once had a family to care for and a career and of course, living alone is a completely different scenario.
Something intuitive had me believe perhaps you had a Rule of LIfe. You are far ahead of me, but our circumstances may be somewhat similar - living alone. I’m finding that it calls for a discipline to curb the wanderings that frequently arise simply from being in this lifestyle.
I noted in myself over time, Carole, that my timetable or horarium had become paramount and if I did not meet a certain time with its attendant duty I had assigned, I felt a failure and if I did perchance meet all times for the day and attendant duty, I would feel good about myself. Then one day I woke up that “its all about how I feel about myself”.
…and these are the type of ‘awakenings’ to bring to one’s director.
Over quite a few years, I have learnt not to worry and for me personally, I really had to learn not to worry as worry is stressful and stress can set up an episode of Bipolar. I trust The Lord to bring to my attention what needs to be there and outside that I don’t worry much at all - and if something comes to my attention, my focus is “what to do about this” rather than worry.
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Personally I think one needs to be careful to give The Spirit room to breathe and not be bogged down by a horarium by the clock for every moment of the day.
LOL, Barb … no worry there. If I can just get a semblance of order, that will be doing a lot. Truth be told, this doggone internet forum has been a real distraction. I feel strongly that until I return home from Mass each day that I shouldn’t even turn on the computer!!! That’s one of my resolutions, together with the a.m. coffee. Both need to take a back seat to prior obligations. God first! And while I do pray the LOTH, how often morning prayer doesn’t get prayed until almost lunch. I resolve to do this before mass instead of going on line and drinking coffee. This morning I recognized this unruly habit and gained insight to correct it. See, these are only little things, but so very necessary.
Yes, I can get caught in exactly the same way re the internet - it is a distraction and a focus. One way at times I deal with my computer addiction that can come and go is to put a timer on near the computer and when that rings its time to come off the computer, like it or not. I do use coffee and the computer for my ‘wake up from last night’s medication’ timespan. But then again, once I never had a computer and was on medication and I used to write in my diary for an hour or so until I woke up from medication.
I think (at 63yrs and something of a journey behind me) that a large part of the journey is ‘getting insight’ and ‘making corrections’
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I think it is probably a great assistance to a rule of life for oneself to write it over an extended period prayerfully open to researching and reviewing, and in conjunction with one’s director.
I agree. Perhaps using the tabbed notebook as the link suggested, I will be able in due time to formulate everything the Lord inspires. Enough of this procrastinating.
The key is “I will be able in due time to formulate everything the Lord inspires”. In St. Paul’s definition of Charity, the first item is “love is patient” and our duty of Charity does include towards ourselves as well. I rather think that The Lord’s instruction to love one’s enemy as oneself is inclusive of all my bad habits and failings (enemy) as myself (my higher aspirations). My bad habits and failings can take me to the place of humility as almost nothing else can, and since humility is the foundation of all virtue, I embrace them. “Oh happy fault”. The fear can immediately click into place - but if I embrace my faults and failings and not despise them, they will grow stronger. Rather I have found that if I embrace, they loose power. Perhaps this is what St. Paul meant “in my weakness, I am strong” - a quote that I still ponder over.
I don’t ‘hate’ my faults and failings, for indeed what we hate/fear we reinforce and give power to…eg if I fear the dark, the dark has the power of being fearful to me…until I stop fearing the dark and then darkness has lost all its power over me.
I am something of a control freak and so organization comes very naturally to me…it is disorganization that is my personal challenge.
Once upon a time, I looked forward to the day “I had it all together” …nowadays I just embrace the journey of the day without ambition at all really.
In other words, I live alone and have nobody to answer to but me, and that seems to be an occasion for a lot of wasted energy, doing my own thing, being at my own beck and call. It seems to have caused a backsliding of sorts in a few areas where I was really strong in the olden days of activity and employment.
However, I felt the urgency to begin anyway.