Blessings

Dear Urban Abbey Members and Friends: This is my week to post some thoughts/meditation…and I’m late. It has been a very busy week for me. As I was driving home Friday evening and stressing about not having done my blog posting YET, I reflected back on the week and realized how blessed I have been this past week.

My new job with the Navy is in the Appropriations Committee Congressional Liaison office. We deal with questions and interest items from the Defense Appropriations Committees, but we also have to prepare the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) and Chief of Naval Operations (CNO). So, it seems we live from one short suspense tasking to the next. As I looked back at my week of going from one hot item to the next, I realized all the help I had been given from the young officers in our office. Our efforts are joint efforts by the office, but my colleagues were caring, calmed me down when that was needed, pitched in to help do “Read Ahead” memos for the SECNAV or CNO, provide guidance on how to arrange transportation, and a host of other tasks. In the midst of all our frenetic efforts, they took the time to listen, help out as they could, provide soothing counsel. To be honest, I can’t really remember how I responded in return. I hope that I treated them as generously in return, but I know there were times when I was a bit sharp.

I guess the message in this rambling is that we can get caught up in the events of our busy lives and overlook the blessings and grace that God is constantly sending our way through others around us. My goal for the upcoming few weeks (which also promise to be hectic) is to try to remember to ‘take a few deep breaths’ in the midst of the business of the day to see the blessings and generosity of others…and to be a blessing to them. In one of his past meditations, Fr. Don Talafous (Saint John’s Abbey) reminds us that, while we cannot always control the events going on around us, we can control our reaction to them.

I am constantly amazed at overwhelming generosity of our God and the way God puts people in our path to cheer us on. Where do you find the blessings of God in your life?

Shalom, George