Philosophy – Page 10 – Andrea Arthur Owan

13 Tips for a Healthy, Happy (Regret-free) Thanksgiving

Have you ever gotten to the end of Thanksgiving Day or awakened the following day regretting the amount of food you ate, the desserts consumed, and the way you feel post-feast?

Why not turn over a new leaf by deciding now that things will be different this year—that you’ll make better, healthier choices, and be happier and proud of your new lifestyle choices.

That you’ll enjoy conscientious eating!

How to do it—

If you’re ready and excited to give it a try, use some or all of these tips to maximize your success by having a game plan. No game plan usually means failure!

FIRST and FOREMOST, be prayed up before you hit the table! That your eyeballs and tastebuds are not led into temptation!

After you’ve gotten the turkey all dressed and prepped and popped in the oven, grab your sweetie and four-legged family members and go for a walk. Getting outside in the fresh air can help you work up an appetite. It’ll also get the digestive tract going so it’s primed to digest the food better when you do sit down to eat.
If you’re using paper plates, buy smaller ones, rather than the big, oval smorgasbord-type models.
Don’t showcase all of the food on the dining room table so you only have to grab, spoon and plop the food on your plate. Having the food in front of you makes it too easy to mindlessly overeat. Place the food on a table in another room besides the dining room, so you have to get up to serve yourself.
On your first round at plating your food, select salads, veggies and fruit and sit down and eat those. Then return for the meat and potatoes. Or fill up most of your plate with the salads, veggies and fruit and save a tiny space for the meat, potatoes and gravy.
For the dessert, make a decision ahead of time to take small servings for the desserts, or take four to five bites (don’t overload your fork!) and then put your fork down and immediately toss the rest of the dessert so you’re not tempted.
Reduce the number of sweetened drink selections (like sodas, lemonades, etc.) and replace them with homemade, unsweetened lemon, lime, orange or cucumber water. Have orange slices for the kids (or the adults) who like a spurt of sweetness.
Have a spread of nuts, fruits and cheeses out for guests to nibble on before sitting down to the regular meal. A bowl of grapes is always a big hit in our house.
When eating, put your fork down between bites so you maximize your chewing and improve digestion.
Try to spend more time chatting, listening and socializing than eating. Don’t eat and chew simultaneously!
Immediately following the meal, refrigerate the uneaten food that might quickly spoil (to avoid reflexive nibbling), wrap up the other items to keep them fresh, and then go for another post-meal, digestive-enhancing stroll.
For you football or sports fans, avoid over-saturation and too much sitting by deciding you’ll only flop on the couch to watch two games, or five hours maximum during the day. If you’re busy cooking and watching, you might be able to squeeze in more, but don’t park yourself on the couch all day. It’s dangerous for your health!
If you want to try something really off-the-wall, dig out the chopsticks and try eating your meal with them! That’s a recommendation I received from a professional in healthful eating that I interviewed for an article a couple of years ago. Fun, and funny! (You will eat less while stimulating your brain and coordination.)
Instead of watching sports, dig out the board games and stimulate your brain and conversation.

You don’t need to brag about being a glutton to enjoy the day. Think of all of the components that go into it and see how you can apply even small tweaks to leave you feeling healthy and happy, and proud of your self-care!

Let’s hear it for no more guilt!

Time to share—

What does your family do to keep the healthy lifestyle going on the biggest meal ingestion day of the year?

Until next week,

A very blessed and Happy Thanksgiving to you!

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photo by Libby Penner on unsplash

How to Prepare Your Heart to Give Thanks

They came to me through the mail. A surprise present from a precious friend for my BIG birthday this year. I hadn’t put in a request for them. They hadn’t even been on my radar as a possible present.

But they were perfect! And I cried when I opened the box and saw them.

Beads. Beautiful beads handmade into a special loop.

Prayer beads.

I do admit to an initial concern, since I try to avoid anything that resembles rote, repetitive prayer. Unless it’s the “Lord’s prayer” Jesus taught the disciples in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, verses 9-13.

But then I read through the accompanying explanation pamphlet, which offered suggestions on how to use the beads to pray.

The beads actually start with the Cross, which reminds us of Christ’s act of salvation for us.

The next bead up from the cross has been called the Invitatory Bead, which can be used as a call to worship. Reciting the Lord’s Prayer is a suggested prayer to call you to worship God.

Then comes the Resurrection Bead that reminds us that Christ has conquered death. For believers, we rejoice in the Resurrection that gives us eternal life.

Then the 4 Cruciform Beads that form the shape of the cross. The number 4 is a reminder of the four Gospels.

The seven little beads between each cruciform beads are called “Week Beads” (the number 7 representing spiritual perfection) that can also remind us of the 7 days of Creation.

The total number of beads, 33, reminds us of the years Christ lived on earth.

Now back to the cruciform beads—

The first thing that struck me in the instructions was the order the cruciform beads take you through when praying.

And praying that way has had a profound effect on my prayer life.

It’s suggested that the first cruciform bead above the Resurrection Bead be used to acknowledge God. Who He is, how He loves, what He’s done for us.

The next cruciform bead, as you move counter-clockwise around the beads, is where you Confess your sins and ask for forgiveness.

The third cruciform bead is the bead of Thanksgiving.

The final cruciform bead is the Intercessory Bead or where you offer up your prayer requests.

If you want to return to the first cruciform bead, you can once again thank God for Who He is.

Did you notice the order?

I found it a bit unsettling to my heart and brain the first time I stumbled through praying with the beads.

But then the light bulb in my head went on: how focused and right it seemed to pray that way!

To spend the initial time identifying with the cross of my Savior—the beautiful and somber identity marker of love, forgiveness, sacrifice and hope. What started out as unnatural quickly became comfortable.

Then I moved to praying the Lord’s Prayer at the Invitation Bead.

And then on to the Resurrection Bead. And as I prayed this way, something rather miraculous happened.

I slowed down and focused on the Lord—who He is, what He means to me, and what He means to the body of Christ—the “our” and “us” so often repeated in the Lord’s Prayer. A reminder that although this praying is personal it’s also corporate. I am part of a great body of believers stretching back a couple of thousand years. I am not alone in my faith, or in my relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And then, instead of rushing on to my prayer requests and thank you’s, I had to focus on my faults. Those nasty transgressions that put a rift in my relationship with God, that stifle my spiritual health.

It struck me how those confessions came before the thank you and prayer request beads. And how important it is that I don’t skip this “step” before moving on.

It’s humbling. And freeing. To get it all out in the open, laid out and taken care of. So I can move forward.

Forgiven.

When I did move forward, I felt free and unencumbered to really thank God for all of His marvelous blessings, big and small! After the somber aura surrounding my heart and soul during the confession stage, the aura disappeared to be replaced by unearthly, saturating joy at the thanksgiving bead!

And then my heart was truly ready to put in my requests. After the preceding prayers, the conduit between the Lord and me seemed to be open and flowing. Joyful. Rejoicing.

Supremely blessed and fulfilled.

Residual blessings—

When the praying is over, I’ve found I’m more in tune to the Spirit and His leading throughout the day.

Those beads came with me on the Camino, carried in my backpack’s hip pocket and into every church we visited. They helped keep me centered and focused, grateful and awed as we traversed country boasting centuries of Christian faithfulness.

Required form?

Do you have to pray this way?

No.

The only “set” way Jesus gave as an example for prayer is in the prayer He taught the disciples to pray. But the Lord’s Prayer gives a template that sets the form for praying with the beads.

He wanted us to acknowledge God, who He is and His position in the Universe, and His position with us, His children.
He wanted us to recognize that it is God’s will that should drive our lives and decisions.
He wanted us to recognize the source of our daily physical sustenance and spiritual infusion, and seek it daily.
He wanted us to ask forgiveness for our trespasses, in accordance to the way we forgive others’ theirs.
And then he tells us evil exists and we need protection from it.

Using the prayer bead format to prepare your heart for Thanksgiving—

I think most, if not all of us, want to demonstrate grateful hearts on Thanksgiving Day, the ONE day a year set aside for it. Most of us are at least a little tuned into the meaning of the day rather than just on the feast and the shopping. (I do hope I’m right one that point!)

So how can we best prepare our hearts to give thanks? I’m talking about deeply felt thanks that moves your spirit to joy, and not just coming up with a quick list of things you’re grateful for.

Praying them, as the gratitude research indicates, is so life changing.

Don’t have prayer beads? No problem!

Even without your own prayer beads, you can do this. To get yourself focused and have something to follow, you may want to write down the order and take it into your “prayer room” with you.

Breathe deeply to normalize your breathing and settle your mind. When you’re engaged in purposeful, directed prayer, I find you’re far less likely to find your mind wandering. Always a bonus! And you’re also more open to the Spirit’s lead as He guides your thoughts in directions and to events and people you might not have had on your planned “prayer list.”

So well before the family and friends gather on Thursday, and you’re in crush-mode in the kitchen, I invite you to retreat to a quiet place—inside or out—with your prayer beads or prayer outline and be quieted, humbled, inspired and fulfilled!

In tune with your God.

More thankful in all ways and with all things and ready for your heart and soul to overflow with that thankfulness.

Let me know about your experience.

I will be praying that you have a joyful week, overflowing with gratefulness and Thanksgiving!

NEXT MONDAY we’ll head back to our regular gratitude posts.

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

How Do Religion and Prayer Affect Gratitude?

You may have wondered if religious people are more grateful than their unbelieving or agnostic peers. Maybe you’ve asked yourself if praying makes you a more grateful person, or if parenting styles encourages the development of grateful children.

Today on Meditation Mondays, we’ll look at those factors: what role does religion or faith or parenting play in gratitude.

What’s Religion Got to Do With It?

As it turns out, a lot.

In a 2003 study, people who were noted as being more grateful had a higher sense of engaging in religion for it’s own sake and a lower sense of engaging in religion for the sake of others. Like someone would if they engaged in religion simply for the sake of improving their social status. In other words: dishonest motive.

Other studies show positive correlations between gratitude and attirbutes typically associated with religion, such as:

frequently participating in religious practices
considering religion to be an important factor in life
having a personal relationship with God
experiencing spiritual transcendence—a perceived experience of the sacred that affects your feelings, goals, self-perception and ability to surpass, conquer or outshine your difficulties
being committed to your religion—a sense of and expressing your commitment

When studying young people ages 17 – 24, researchers found that this age group tends to feel gratitude when they—

have their prayers answered
experience a miracle
have religious friends

But there were behaviors not correlated with gratitude—

the religion a person was affiliated with
private devotion practice
actively participating in organized religion
having a belief in a spiritual world
how important religion is to your life
considering yourself to be spiritual

I found this list interesting. These results show that gratitude is not triggered or related to what religion you practice; whether or not you maintain a practice of doing devotions or having a time of devotions; being active in organized religion; just generally believing in the spiritual world; ranking religion as very important to your life; or considering yourself spiritual.

I find the last finding fascinating.

So often I have heard someone say, “I’m not religious, but I’m spiritual.” My internal eyeballs roll. Exactly what does that mean? I’m not sure they can answer that. But now I have some scientific ammunition for how flimsy that belief can be.

Evidently just being spiritual doesn’t make you grateful.

But what does affect your gratitude is praying and having your prayers answered!

And while both Christians and atheists put a high price tag on gratitude and the benefits that come with and from being grateful, it was the Christians that reported “significantly higher” levels of gratitude in terms of emotions that feel or emote gratitude than their unbelieving peers.

Religion, gratitude, and mental health—

Some interesting findings popped up in this category.

Older adults that tended be less grateful experienced depression with prolonged financial difficulties.

But church-attending older adults who believed that God intervened in their lives to help them overcome difficulties displayed greater gratitude over time.

And religious involvement has been linked to having a grateful disposition, regardless of negative or positive feelings or display of emotions.

Using your religion to deal with stress had a significant association with gratitude, and that has a high correlation to utilizing prayer to figure out what God is trying to tell you or teach you.

The takeaway is:

religion may help people maintain gratitude even in the face of emotional distress.
religion also offers social support, which triggers gratitude.
praying can stimulate gratitude, for achieving help or understanding (for you or others).
gratitude can help you view negative life events as lessons from the Almighty!

Effects of Praying on Gratitude—

Research has shown that if you are instructed to pray for your partner for a 4-week period of time, you will likely report having higher levels of gratitude for that person than someone who just thinks good or positive thoughts about their partner.

Ever have anyone say to you “I’ll be thinking good thoughts for you!”

When someone says that to me, it always leaves me feeling a little flat and uninspired. I always assumed that was because the person saying it was usually an atheist or agnostic. But maybe it’s because deep down inside my heart, I know “good thoughts” won’t cut it. Something deeper needs to be involved.

But don’t fall into the trap of simply egging someone on with adding religious-speak, either, like using the words “spirit,” “divine,” and “God.” Using those words fall just as flat. They don’t increase feelings of gratitude.

And do you think that having intrinsic religiousness and a trait of gratitude increases your gratitude for a favor? Evidently that power combo didn’t effect the expression of gratitude in response to a favor.

Men versus Men—

In the German men versus American men study I mentioned in last week’s post, the researchers also discovered that 1/3 of the American men in the study preferred to hide their gratitude.

None of the German men expressed that desire or need.

Gratitude and people around the world—

Far more than Americans, United Kingdom citizens tended to link gratitude with a host of negative emotions, like:

guilt
indebtedness
embarrassment
awkwardness

And kids?

American children were the most likely to express “concrete gratitude” (the desire to repay a gift or favor), when they were compared to children from Russia, Brazil, and China.

Which kids were the least likely to express it? Russian kids.

However, 11 to 14-year-old Russian kids expressed “connective gratitude” (taking into account the desires of the benefactor when repaying a gift or favor) than the other children.

What about parenting?

Drum roll? Brrrrrrrrrr. The answer is…?

Nothing. Not anything concrete, anyway.

What a researcher named Andrea Hussong did find and publish in 2017 was while 85% of parents encouraged their children to say “thank you,” only 39% of them to experience gratitude in ways other than saying those two words.

The question that still remains in the area of parent-taught gratitude, though, is how parenting choices influence how children think of and experience gratitude.

Researchers say it’s an area ripe for more research, and more study needs to be done on it.

NEXT WEEK we’ll take a break from looking at the research to explore more of gratitude in prayer. You won’t want to miss this post! It’ll provide you with great preparation for Thanksgiving, and a good Christmas present idea—for you or that special friend.

Until then, be thinking about how you pray and for whom you pray.

Who could you pray and increase your gratitude for?
How might you increase your children’s gratitude expressions through parenting?
As Thanksgiving approaches, who can you think of that would get a real boost from a show of gratitude?
How could you boost your own gratitude trait?

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photo by rawpixel on unsplash

The Science of Gratitude

I have a family member who seems to focus on all the negatives in her life. If she doesn’t have a “big fat problem” to deal with, there doesn’t seem to be anything to focus on, no life purpose. While we occasionally hear her voice words of gratitude, they’re few and far between, and they usually have to do with people being useful to her, rather than “no good to me.”

It’s exhausting emotionally, spiritually and physically, so our time spent with her is limited. She doesn’t see herself as a negative person, but that’s how the rest of the family defines her. Void of a lot of gratitude.

What’s behind being grateful?

Just why do some people seem more naturally grateful than others? Can it be learned through practice? Is there a genetic component to it? What are the best ways to encourage, practice, and develop it? Is it an emotion? Virtue? Behavior?

These are some of the many questions we’ll be exploring together on Meditation Mondays as we approach Thanksgiving here in the United States. We’ll be preparing our hearts for that day, and carrying thankfulness into 2019 with us. And, hopefully, throughout the remainder of our lives.

So let’s get started today with some basics.

Gratitude as a research topic—

Scientists are studying gratefulness, and they’re learning some fascinating things about it. But before they started gratefulness research—a relatively new area in psychology and neuroscience—they had to develop some working definitions. Robert Emmons—considered by some as the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude—and Michael McCullough whittled gratitude down to 2 definitions, so it could be scientifically studied and quantified. Those definitions are:

“Recognizing one has obtained a positive outcome (from something), and;
Recognizing that there is an external source for the positive outcome.”

They understand that people can possess gratitude for something outside of themselves, something, or someone, like God, fate, nature, etc., as the benefactors.

Some scientists then go on to break gratitude down into 3 categories:

An “affective trait”—are you innately more prone to be grateful as part of your personality?
A mood—Does your overall gratitude level alter throughout the day?
An emotion—Where you experience a temporary spike in gratitude as a result of something positive or beneficial being given to you.

Gratitude and brain science—

Scientists have uncovered areas our brains that express or experience gratitude. And some studies claim to have located possible gratitude genes.

Are there biological roots of gratitude? Why do some people seem naturally inclined to experience and express it? Are their ways you can foster “feelings and expressions of gratitude?”

Some researchers look at gratitude on an evolution spectrum: gratitude and helping one another out strengthens community bonds.

“Feeling” gratitude—

I think most people would say they “feel happy” when they experience gratitude, as though happiness and gratitude go hand-in-glove with one another. But evidently we experience gratitude in different ways and depending upon what kind of personality we have, what our cognitive function or awareness is, and what gender we are. Yes, females and males differ on the gratitude spectrum!

Other ingredients need to be considered too. Like:

Where were you born and where did you grow up; and who were your parents?
Social and cultural mores you grew up or live in.
The religion you learned or follow.
The kind of parenting styles you exposed to.

Benefits—

Scientists have uncovered a multitude of benefits for the grateful.

Grateful people demonstrate greater happiness and life satisfaction.
Grateful people experience less materialism.
Grateful people enjoy both physical and psychological benefits.
Grateful people exhibit a greater resiliency to traumatic events.
Gratefulness may promote the development of other traits we consider virtues, like: patience, humility and wisdom. (Although I would argue that no matter how grateful you are, you cannot enjoy real wisdom without first acknowledging God. More on that in a later post.)

And gratitude appears to inspire people to generosity, kindness and helpfulness. It shores up relationships and may improve work environments by promoting positive attitudes and behavior.

In the following weeks, we’ll dig deeper into all of these and discover how to be grateful people, or more grateful than we already are. To pass it on and encourage and promote the behavior in others.

Until then, I’d encourage you to watch the following 4-minute YouTube video in which University of California—Davis professor, Robert Emmons, reveals 4 encouraging benefits in his presentation: “What Good is Gratitude?”

For more information on gratitude, go to the University of California—Berkeley’s: Greater Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life. They have a wonderful online magazine called Great Good Magazine: Science-Based Insights for a Meaningful Life.

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

My Camino wasn’t going to be rising before dawn and rushing through the popular 15-18-mile “stage” in order to make sure I secured a bed at the next town’s cheapest Albergue (like so many of the pilgrims on the path).

My Camino was going to be slowing down, engaging with the history, geography and spirituality. Stopping often to absorb the surroundings, architecture, history and people. Sitting in churches long enough to breathe in the Spirit of God. Trusting that God would provide a place for me to lay my head each night. Teaching myself how to live and walk in a relaxed manner.

Preparing for your day—

When you’re preparing to leave one place you know you won’t be returning to and walking 5 – 15 miles to another location, you plan carefully. You spend some time thinking about what you’re going to wear, how you’re going to pack, in case the weather changes and you need to shed a jacket or get to your rain gear and poncho in a hurry. If you happen to leave something back at the place you slept, you think long and hard about whether you really need it. About whether or not you can buy a replacement in the next tiny village you sleep in.

You get into a rhythm, and you realize quickly just what you need to have and what you can live without. Hopefully you’ve done some serious thinking about this before you’ve arrived to start the walk. Unless you’ve decided to splurge and have a carrier service cart your bag from sleeping town to sleeping town, carrying an extra 2 or three pounds of unnecessary gear in your backpack can be physically and mentally debilitating.

At first it’s a little frustrating and disarming: Where do I keep my pilgrim credentials so I can access them easily to give to the person checking me in at the albergue? Where’s the best place in my backpack to keep my reading glasses so I can access them in a hurry? My sunglasses if the clouds should part? My first aid kit? (Just in case your or another pilgrim needs some care.) A special place for the precious handmade journal my son gave me and insisted I take along. The one I’d weep buckets of tears over if it got wet or lost.

It takes your brain some time to process, the fact that you have to think carefully about these particulars, since you’re more accustomed to being able to jump in the car to rush back where you left something, make an additional trip to the store to buy what you forgot. But the brain is an amazing body part. It eventually learns to accommodate and think in different patterns and meet new demands.

You develop a daily rhythm:

Although this run-down may read like a tedious list, stay with me. I’ll talk about the benefits afterward.

Wake up and rise slowly, stretch the body to prepare it for the day’s walk.
Do your bathroom thing. Since the pottying and washing rooms might be separate, you need to prepare for carting your tooth supplies to a different location for preparation, and your clothes for dressing. Putting in contact lenses might require yet another locale (depending upon sink and mirror availability.)
Roll up and shrink your sleeping bag (if you had to use one) and then spread all of your bags of clothing and necessities out on your bed, to make sure everything is accounted for.
If you haven’t done so the night before, head to the clothesline to gather your clothes and give them a once-over to see if socks, shirts, undies and pants are dry enough to wear or roll up in a baggy. If not, the item will be rolled into a special bag (so as not to dampen other items) or clipped onto your backpack to dry as you walk.
Kinesiotape any body parts that need taping.
Double check the weather and temperature outside and decide on the day’s start-off clothing.
Get your hiking shirt(s) and pants on.
Prepare your feet and toes for the day, carefully put on your socks and then your shoes. (Although you may have to wait until you’re fully dressed and backpacked and headed to the front of the albergue if you’re shoes are stored in a downstairs cubby to keep the floors clean.)
Carefully pack up your backpack—sleeping bag in the very bottom, followed by bath towel and washcloth, silk sleeping bag liner, shower sandals, Ziploc bags of clothes and undies. The tiny pouches of daily contact lenses, foot care tape and pedicure supplies and the one containing general toiletries get tucked into available areas.
Then the journal and pilgrim credential (stored in waterproof bags) are slipped into the backpack and covered by the rain poncho and compressed puff jacket.
The upper pouch gets the Goretex rain jacket and pants (if the jacket isn’t being worn that day for general warmth), along with the assorted eyeglass containers (long distance sunglasses, travel-sized readers, and general long distance (for those times I’m taking a contact lens break). The sports sunglasses—in their case—get attached to the outside of my backpack’s hip pocket pouch for easy access. If I’m not wearing my sunhat that day, it gets folded up and stored in the top pouch too, for easy access. The money pouch, with the United States passport in its waterproof container, goes on top. Just in case we stop for a café con leche, banana or hunk of cheese along the way.
The outside pouch stores the Duck Back cover for my backpack (which I actually don’t need any longer since I purchased a full over-the-backpack-and-me poncho in St. Jean Pied de Pont just before setting out). It also carries my collapsible parachute bag I used for necessities like my United States of America passport and money pouch. The compact first aid get goes there, too, as well as any oranges, cheese or bananas I can squeeze into available space.
The two hip pouches contain lip cream, Euro coinage, the rosary Cory bought me in Rome, the prayer beads my dear girlfriend Judy bought me for my journey, and my hearing aids, which would cost me a small fortune to replace.
Before grabbing my coveted Pacer Poles hiking sticks, I double and triple-check for several items:
Hearing aids in the container (if they’re not in my ears, which Chris always checked for me too).
My phone, which I have only to take pictures, and in case of an emergency, should Chris and I become separated and I need to make contact with someone.
My precious leather journal and pilgrim credentials, to prove I’m on a foot-born pilgrimage and which gives me the right to bed down in an albergue.
Contact lenses
My money pouch and official passport, (which Chris always eyeballs too).
My Kinesiotape, (with which I could not walk comfortable if I were to lose).
Finally, the critical water bottles are topped off and placed in our backpack pockets.
Then the wrist sweatbands go on, followed by the Kool Tie neck wrap tied around my neck to ward off overheating and migraines, the hiking poles are grabbed, and you head out the door for another adventure, which you’ve come to realize you’re going to have. Every day.
The only jewelry I wore was a $15.00 faux pearl and diamond ring, so I didn’t have to worry about losing my real wedding ring or futzing with earrings. No watch, either. I relied on my phone, or the sunlight, for the time. And I didn’t bring any makeup. The only thing I applied to my face was sunscreen.

Not much to worry about.

Preparation time—

Because Chris and I were unhurried, this procedure took us about an hour. On days we wanted to rise early to beat the heat or walk longer distances, we managed to whittle it down to 45 minutes. Because most albergues expect you to vacate by 8:00 AM—to prepare for the next gaggle of pilgrims flooding their dormers—you’d likely have to rise earlier than you might have preferred. Especially if you’re sharing a room with pilgrims on a sprint to their next bed, who awaken you with noisy departure preparations or abrupt, dream-shattering light so they can be off.

Typed out on a word document, the process looks boring and tedious. Too methodical and repetitious. But it quickly became a comfortable ritual, one that gave consistency to our lives and only mildly jostled the brain. Each possession had a purpose and its place. Nothing useless or unnecessary. Everything we carried was meant to meet the basics of our daily needs. There was nothing but the necessaries to weigh us down. And most of it, besides the eyeglasses to see, the hearing aids to hear, the United States passport to move around Europe and get home, and the water was not critical.

Joy, and possibilities, in tedious structure—

The mundaneness had its advantages.

Since my brain had very little to be concerned about every morning, and became accustomed to the repetitive program, it was left with plenty of room to engage in the geography, the new surroundings, sights, smells, tastes and varied languages. New people and interesting conversations. All enjoyed without distractions or waste. Just as I was doing physically, my brain was relishing being able to take a breath.

I started enjoying the simplicity of carrying lightly and started pondering what I carried through life back home—what I’d picked up and carted along in my life “just in case”—that could be discarded.

There were plenty of buying opportunities, (and I had a wad of Euros in my pouch), but with so little room available, and the burden of extra weight to consider, I pondered each purchase with care and conscientious analysis. Something else I knew I needed to do more of in life.

Seriously consider the weight and substance of everything I own, everything I do, everything I buy.

It wasn’t that I was embracing a minimalistic attitude or view of life. If anything I probably found greater emotional joy than I had before in thinking about the beautiful and varied things that enrich my life and bring me happiness and satisfaction. The family heirlooms and pictures that trigger happy memories and the release of feel-good brain chemicals.

But I started asking myself some questions. Questions you may also want to ask yourself:

Introspection—

What things do I too hastily pick up and burden my heart, mind and life with? Do I carefully count the cost of carrying them before picking them up?
What belongings do I have that add nothing to my life, or, worse yet, only make it more complicated and burdensome?
What should and would I divest myself of in order to enjoy a richer, fuller life?
What should I divest myself of in order to invest in deeper, fuller relationships with family, friends and strangers?

It didn’t take long for me to start pondering those questions and soaking myself in the simple, divested life of a pilgrim. After all, I had traveled all that distance to hear what God had to teach me through the experience.

And I was determined to listen.

I’ll tell you more about that NEXT WEEK!

Until then, take some time to count the cost of your belongings and attachments?

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photos by Andrea A Owan