{"id":7800,"date":"2021-07-10T15:12:45","date_gmt":"2021-07-10T19:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/?p=7800"},"modified":"2021-07-14T21:14:49","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T01:14:49","slug":"365239-uncluttering-the-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/365239-uncluttering-the-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"365+#239: Uncluttering the Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/praying-hands.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-7429\" src=\"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/praying-hands-268x300.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"112\" \/><\/a>Two recent experiences have prompted me to prayer. Ideally prayer is a conversation with the God who dwells within me as I explore deep spiritual truths about what is really important in life. Often this is a quiet time, prompted by scripture and nature. But sometimes the Spirit breaks in through the activities of my daily life. For example:<\/p>\n<p><strong>PLANET EARTH:<\/strong> Readers of my recent blog posts know that I have been consumed with PLASTIC \u2013 how to reduce its harmful impact on our environment.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Days-365-96-Uber-recycling-earth.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-4003\" src=\"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Days-365-96-Uber-recycling-earth-300x300.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"152\" height=\"152\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Days-365-96-Uber-recycling-earth-300x300.gif 300w, https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Days-365-96-Uber-recycling-earth-150x150.gif 150w, https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Days-365-96-Uber-recycling-earth-1024x1024.gif 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 152px) 100vw, 152px\" \/><\/a> This has led to connecting with about 10 plastic related groups, some local, some regional, a few national and even international. They are all good, but they all have meetings, often on Zoom and lately morphing back into in-person meetings. It can be overwhelming \u2013 both time wise and emotionally. It\u2019s hard to keep them all straight and know what to spend my energy on.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This feeling that I needed to let go of fretting about how to do it all and return to the essential, led me deeper into my daily morning prayer that my husband and I composed many years ago. <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=z4AXbLgw6iY&amp;ab_channel=SusanVogt\">Click here for the 3 min. YouTube version<\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>DEATH:<\/strong> I recently attended the Memorial service upon the death of a good friend who I have been in community with for over 50 years. The celebration of her life was good, but also sobering. Of course death is always a reminder that none of us are going to get out of this world alive. But as I gaze at a crucifix and watch the annual birth\/death\/rebirth of nature outside my window, I am again reminded that this life is \u201c<em>not what it\u2019s all about, Alfie<\/em>.\u201d (Those of a certain age will understand this quote and the rest of you can google it.)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Remembering the inevitability of death reminds me of the final part of my daily prayer:<br \/>\n<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/sunrise.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-795\" src=\"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/sunrise.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"95\" height=\"127\" \/><\/a><span style=\"color: #800000;\">I am alive \u2026 But I will not always be.<\/span><\/em><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><em><br \/>\n<\/em><em>I am loved \u2026 It&#8217;s not all about me. I don&#8217;t have to prove myself.<br \/>\n<\/em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">(Yes,\u00a0 my spouse of 50 years loves me; but even if I were not in a loving marriage, I believe deep down that God loves me unconditionally.)<\/span><em><br \/>\n<\/em><em>Sooooo \u2026 How am I to spread that love to those I am with today?<\/em><\/span><br \/>\n(Pause and anticipate who might come into my presence today.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These two prayer practices help me to declutter my mind \u2013 at least for the moment \u2013 and remember what is really important. I don\u2019t know how (or if) dear reader, you pray. May my words prompt you to seek your own way. If you feel moved to share your experiences on this blog, it may prompt another to refresh their mind and heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two recent experiences have prompted me to prayer. Ideally prayer is a conversation with the God who dwells within me as I explore deep spiritual truths about what is really important in life. Often this is a quiet time, prompted by scripture and nature. But sometimes the Spirit breaks in through the activities of my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,12],"tags":[30,29,17,52],"class_list":["post-7800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beyond-stuff","category-days-365","tag-faith","tag-intangibles","tag-musings","tag-plastics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7800"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7823,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7800\/revisions\/7823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}