The church bells announce the beginning of a new day.
A bit of Emmet Fox with coffee focuses my thoughts—the Kingdom of God is within. Remember.
What you focus on, grows. Gentle focus, patient focus. Daily tasks yield to persistent attention and care, foundations are laid and astonishing towers are erected.
How did those circumstances come to be? The comfortable companionship of that wife of decades, those charming and pleasant children—now fully grown?
Chop wood, carry water—this would be the Buddhist answer, perhaps. For me, it is Emmet Fox speaking of the Sermon on the Mount. It is the Serenity Prayer, elegantly summarizing Marcus Aurelius. It is doing the next indicated thing, one day at a time. Sometimes willingly, sometimes grumpily and after much procrastination.
It is this: Be still, and know that I am God.