Good morning, God, and thank you very much for this new day! The sun will be coming up soon, we'll see blue skies and feel warm temperatures, and we'll have another day full of opportunities to make something special of it. We'll be able to talk to other people, get work done, relax and meditate, cook food and eat it, and really, anything else that we want to do, as long as we can afford it, of course. I won't be able to hop onto a plane to Australia just like that. Though I have to stop when I say that--I actually could do that, though I would be changing a lot of things if I were to do so, not the least of which would be my relationship with my wife if I spent that much money on a whim like that.
Being spontaneous is really important in life, of course, but we have to use our reason to decide which things are worthwhile and safe enough to try. I could try going out rock climbing, but there's a very good chance that I would fall while doing so, as I have no training at all. On the other hand, a nice hike up to a mountain lake may be not just doable, but inspiring and uplifting.
An interesting set of ideas set up by a sentence about what I can't do. So perhaps this is what this note is about: I'd like to ask you to help me to be spontaneous when I can be, and to help me to discern between those things that truly are valuable enough and possible enough to undertake, and those things that may seem like a good idea at the time, but which may not be the best for me.
A reply:
Good morning to you, too. I'm glad that you're here for this day, and I hope that you're able to make of it all that you're able to. A lot of what you do and don't do has to do with where you are with your tastes and desires--the simpler you're able to keep things, the more likely you are to have an astonishing day! That may be something for you to explore in a future entry. . . .
You understand why discernment is considered a gift of the Spirit--because it's an important skill to have when you need to make decisions. The human life is filled with decision after decision, and knowing how to make them effectively is extremely important for you and the other people in your life. Your father's decisions to go out drinking as soon as he got a paycheck had a lasting effect on you and your family. Your own decision not to drink for so long had a lasting effect on the person that you've become.
Impulse can be a wonderful thing, of course, but it can make things unpleasant if the impulse leads to negative results and has no real positive return. Impulse has been one of the most consistent obstacles to a full life for many, many people, and that's a shame. Practice your discernment when you face an impulse, but also remember that when the stakes are very low, impulse can be a wonderfully liberating force. Picking up a book and going to the park to read can be a very positive impulse; going skiing instead of going to the job interview you had scheduled may not be.
Of course, if it were me, I would tend to err on the side of spontaneity, trusting myself to be able to discern between what's good for me and what's not.
But that's just me. Have a wonderful Thursday!
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