This morning I started my day as I start every day. Sat in my prayer chair, opposite the tree, enjoying the utter magic of the early morning. I have a front row seat to the world of wildlife. Whether the cautious squirrel who poses on the fence post podium to eat his findings, or the pigeons flirting in the trees many branches. And the various shaped, sized and sounding winged wonders that sing out from all around. I love, love, love to be an observer of this most magical natural world. From my position here I seek the voice of the one who knows the day I’ll have and the way to navigate it. Magic.
As I work from home in my own magical little bubble, I sometimes forget about the wider world. This morning I was forced out into the world by a routine dental appointment. I was not expecting the volume of traffic I encountered given it was well outside of commuting times. This reminded me that I can never control the external but I can always work on my internal response to it! Along with the never failing, always on-hand-to-help, Almighty! This is good news for everybody.
And I made my appointment on time. Eventually. I was greeted by a different dental team to previously.
“Oh, you’re a different team”, I blurted out.
“Yes, I am … “, came the reply, followed by an introduction, ending with something like,
“It’s another Monday … groan type noise”.
“Hey, a new Monday equals a brand new day and a brand new week to start again. Don’t forget to seek the magic in a Monday as in any other day!” I chirped, sounding annoyingly chirpy even to my own ears!
However, I do believe that shit, stress and strife await us all. But if we throw away our ability to seek to see the magical that remains within it all, we’re giving away part of the antedote! And I’ve grown through too much shit to do that anymore.
How easy it is to unthinkingly repeat a mantra,
“Mondays are days to moan through the post-weekend misery”.
This makes it a norm that we expect and therefore seek to see materialise. Such a prophecy will often be fulfilled! But do we really want it to be?!
If a job is hated so much that Monday brings genuine misery, do something about it. Stop and seek help to find a different way. I spent over twenty years doing jobs full of Mondays and most other days that felt like an endurance test. (for everyone involved). That was crap.
But eventually I got off my arse, got the help I needed and started to pursue my passions! Aside from the recent horrors of embodied trauma colliding with peri/grief/neurodivergence and burn out, I am now living my dreams. Not without twenty years of slog, blood, sweat, tears and prayers that felt stuck on repeat. And so, sometimes I forget that having worked so relentlessly to realise my dreams, that others are still stuck settling for the ‘same old, same old’, mantra.
WAKEY WAKEY PEOPS!
Life is fleeting, fragile and free for anyone with the heart to receive it, share it, lose it, seek it, find it and keep receiving it.
Make this Monday a turnaround point for Mondays becoming a magical start to the week.
In the words of Van Morrison, there is no need to transform your Monday without the help of the one who can:
“I know that God shines his light on me
Reach out for him, he’ll be there
With him your troubles you can share
If you live the life you love
You get the blessings from above
He heals the sick and he heals the lame
Says you can do it too, in Jesus name
He’ll lift you up and he turns you around
And he puts your feet back on higher ground”.
Yes, yes and yes Mr Morrison and not just on a Monday!
That’s my God (yours if you want him) – when we call out to him, he loves to show case who he really is. At least he does when we are patient, trusting and committed enough to keep waiting and watching for the wow-ing he loves to give us. In his own sweet time!
Happy Monday peops or if it is not happy, ask for some help from on high.
You have nothing to lose, and all to gain by giving God a try.