If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. -- Abraham Maslow
When we can take a long view of our problems, we can sometimes see that we're using inappropriate tools to try to solve them. What's necessary for us to do is to move away, to detach. That may show us a whole new context into which our problem fits, and in which it may not even be a problem.
Detachment is hard to achieve when we're deeply hooked into a situation. When we send ourselves drastic messages like "now or never!" we're pressing our noses right up against the problem - a position in which it's difficult to maintain a balanced view. To stop and say, "If not now, then perhaps some other time," unhooks us and lets us remember that life is richer and more varied than we thought when we were hooked.
Crisis thinking can be like a hammer - it flattens everything. This can be our way of trying to control the outcome of our individual struggle. But when we remember that we make up only small parts of one grand and beautiful design. We can surrender our problems to it.
To be a competent worker, I will seek out the tools that are best suited to my task.
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'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
I love this share, Roger. For me, it speaks to giving up control and also acknowledging that things take time for progress to occur. Sometimes I need to intentionally remind myself that in the same way that I can't lose 10 pounds from one day of praying and eating well, I cannot come into full sobriety after one day of praying and not drinking. When I think about where I was psychologically 2 years ago vs. where I am at right now, I want to step into a time machine and angrily shake some wet noodles at my old self for being so stupid and egotistical :) And I realize that I will probably feel the same way 2 years from now about my current self. Living in a culture that is very much focused on short-term solutions and immediate gratification, I think our recovery can sometimes be made worse if it's something we think is going to happen overnight. And maybe for some people, it does. But given how sick I have been in my character defects, I know that it's going to take a long time for them to be untangled and removed. Thanks again for the share.
-Adam
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When every situation which life can offer is turned to the profit of spiritual growth, no situation can really be a bad one.-Paul Brunton
