Personal Narrative: Acedia And Me

Don't wait until you can do it perfectly, or exactly, just do something. That's is the polar opposite of my usual train of thought.
Our thoughts are powerful. It's no wonder Kathleen Norris, in her newest book Acedia and Me notes that the seven deadly sins used to be called the eight bad (or tempting, perhaps) thoughts. The earliest Christians who wrote about their lives spoke often of how to overcome these thoughts. Their writings describe internal struggle, and what treasure they had found in learning to marshall their thought-life toward God.
Today I was feeling very 'beaten' by a sinus infection, I was challenged to think about what I want to be, instead of what I am not. Ponder that for a moment. The leader reminded us we need more time to
I honestly felt more awake, less sick, more hopeful.
While we don't control which thoughts float in and out of our consciousness, we do control which ones we allow to live there. That, I think, is where our power comes in. There is, quite simply, no way to send those thoughts packing without the power of Intuition and Instinct.
It's a pretty frightening time in our nation's economic history. All around us, people are losing their jobs, at least here in developing economies affected by inflation. Older folks are putting off retirement out of necessity. Younger ones feel insecure. The election has brought out the usual nasty rhetoric. There is not a lot of hope amongst the masses.
I could focus on that. Or I could remember the value of Gratitude- 'Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about these things.' Just count your