Friday, July 27, 2012

Daily 5 - Year 3, Day 340

Today's Daily 5:

  1. sleeping in
  2. lunch with an old friend (and great conversation and food to boot!)
  3. getting a group project finished for another semester
  4. watching the Olympic opening ceremonies (I may or may not have streamed a good chunk of it on silent - mostly the parade of nations - during a very boring class today...)
  5. a moment of quiet revelation

Friday Reflections, July 27, 2012

Today's reflection spoke to my tired and drained heart.  It's once again written by Henri Nouwen.


What We Feel Is Not Who We Are


Our emotional lives move up and down constantly.  Sometimes we experience great mood swings: from excitement to depression, from joy to sorrow, from inner harmony to inner chaos.  A little event, a word from someone, a disappointment in work, many things can trigger such mood swings.  Mostly we have little control over these changes.  It seems that they happen to us rather than being created by us.

Thus it is important to know that our emotional life is not the same as our spiritual life.  Our spiritual life is the life of the Spirit of God within us.  As we feel our emotions shift we must connect our spirits with the Spirit of God and remind ourselves that what we feel is not who we are.  We are and remain, whatever our moods, God's beloved children.