Ash Wednesday

Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.
-- from "Ash Wednesday" by T. S. Eliot

How can I sit still?
Endure the relentless, internal chatter?
The chatter that says,
"Do more!"
"Achieve more!"

How can I embrace the Mystery...
Or be embraced by the Mystery
When I'm so busy
Running from place to place...
and from myself (and God!)?

Appropriate caring;
Appropriate activity;
Appropriate not caring;
Appropriate stillness;
Balance!

The elusive, dynamic fullness
that comes from emptiness.

Not striving to be so
Full of stuff, so
Full of self.

Another Lent -- a few days to
Repent.
Reflect.
Reorient.
Return.

While I've been busy.
God's been waiting to teach me
To care.
To not care.
To sit still.

Forty days.
So long.
So short.
I hope I'm ready
To (re)learn my lessons.