For many of us, it is the middle of the annual meetings season, and there is a fair chance we are beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed by the size of the to-do list. This is certainly true of me. Our District AGM is on 22nd March, and I am District Secretary, so am in charge of organising it. And the GA meetings are only five weeks away, for which I have several bits of paperwork to prepare - for the Peace Fellowship's AGM, and for a URG debate on the use of Artificial Intelligence in Unitarian worship.
And the rest of my life is pretty busy as well - there's always a service to be written and delivered; people to visit; research to do; family matters; domestic stuff - the list goes on. At times like this, when I am feeling overwhelmed by life, it helps to remember the words of Laird Hamilton: "Make sure your worst enemy is not living between your ears."
That little voice, which whispers, "It's all too much. You can't do it. There isn't enough time. You are responsible if anything goes wrong." A whole litany of negativity, nagging away at my equilibrium.
At times like this, I have found that there is only one remedy. I breathe - simply breathe. "Each breath in a breath of life, each breath out a breath of love" as my first spiritual director taught me. And as I breathe, I imagine a beautiful landscape - green hills and blue sky, like the image above, or a calm sea, like the image below.
