The cost of living. What an abused and laughable term at this point in our society. The expense to exist is a more precise summation of the life of today’s average citizen. Will I drone on about the failures of an unsupported economy? Take some pointed political position to justify my earlier statement? No. This is not my intention. I am using the phrase “Cost of Living” in the sense of the physiological cost of living a life worth…living.
If you are waking up to traffic in the street or birds in the trees, you are alive. You have been blessed with the opportunity to start again. The timer for you has been reset. This is your day, the only one that you are promised. The question I intentionally pose to myself upon waking: “How will I start this day?” Will I be frustrated at the sunrise? Or will I be grateful that it chose to shine? Should I start listing all of my obligations as soon as my eyes fling open? Or will I handle them as they come? This isn’t written to say that ignoring one’s obligations is critical to living a life of value. But in those first moments of waking, start by welcoming the day that has been given. It might even prove valuable to think of nothing at all. The point is to start the day open to possibility, and not with dread.
Instead, let me greet the morning with something different. There are millions of external factors beyond my control that are heading this way. If this is already known, and I’m certain that it is out of my control. I want to start with intention so that my focus will be on what is happening now. I keep the gate to the entrance of my thoughts, and am in control of only myself. Nothing more. Say a prayer, ask for blessings and healing, thank him for waking. And remember, whatever comes today was always going to come anyway.
– D. Caulder
Read more from D. Caulder: The Ongoing Journey to Become or Becoming Someone You Value