Hi Friend
This week has had the most unexpected disruption. The keyboard on my MacBook Pro started acting wonky. Actually, four keys stopped working, two of which were part of my login password. I couldn’t get in. Also, I’m out of town all week.
I went to the Apple store, and they got me logged in. We did several diagnoses which revealed a broken Option Key that is reading as always pressed. It didn’t make sense. They kept it overnight to reformat the hard drive. That didn’t work either, but we created a work around.
Unfortunately those didn’t last long so for a third day in a row, I headed back to the Apple Store to buy a keyboard. I had hoped that would solve my problems enough to get me through this week and next, when I’m going to be in Coeur D’Alene doing a presentation. The new keyboard works great. However, when I put my Keynote Message in play mode, the clicker didn’t work because of the Option Key issue.
Back to the Apple Store for the fourth day in a row to get a dongle for my iPad that gives me HDMI output so I can use it for my presentation. It works. Let’s hope next week goes well.
REFRESH
I love a reformatted hard drive, except for all the passwords I have to reload in webpages. Even with all my old stuff put back on it, somehow the fresh formatting gives me a sense of lightness. My desktop still has tons of files on it, but somehow, I think “underneath all that is an optimal, updated, ready-to-go hard drive.”
That’s how we think about our soul isn’t it? Even with all the complex, challenging change transpiring – whether happening to us or around us – if our soul has peace, we’ll eventually be good to go.
Refreshed is:
lightness
peaceful
steadiness
hopeful
rested
Getting refreshed takes intentional effort and action. Unless prioritized, it won’t happen by accident.
PURGE
Recently I’ve written you about concerts, outdoors and challenges that revitalize my soul. The yang to that yin is removing items aggressively from our lives that clutter, weigh down and distract. Purging is not an easy task for us Americans. We accumulate and like our stuff in a way that attaches our identity to things. Clothes, gadgets, vehicles, decor, sentimental trinkets and numerous other belongings can feel intimately connected to our being.
The same is true with emotions. We can host them so long they feel like they are us. We hold onto them with sentiment, yet that very grip may be the albatross dragging us down. Have you ever realized that fear has been your constant companion fueling past decisions and stifling current ones? Awakening to such a reality can be startling and disheartening. Yet awareness offers the possibility of faith triumphing.
Is an emotional purge possible?
With old clothes we just take them off the hanger and drive to Goodwill. How do we strip negative emotional strongholds that we’ve dressed in for so long? Just like with things, we can feel more secure with quantity, not realizing it’s literal garbage filling the home, & the heart.
Instigating Ideas…
1. Consider decluttering a room or closet.
2. Please do something that refreshes your soul.
3. What emotion(s) should you remove from your being?
4. Encourage someone whose identity is rooted in truth, not things.
The Apple store is a clutter-free delight. It’s not entirely minimalistic – there are plenty of hardware and software items to purchase. Yet the fact that you can see from one side of the store to the other without obstacles is rather amazing. There are no shelves. Table height is as tall as it gets. This creates a sense of freedom; an openness to move unhindered. Of course, there are a bunch of people and employees in the room, but it still possesses a lightness. I flittered about like I was gliding.
BE FREE
Isn’t that the yearning of our soul… Living untethered to any negative emotion, physical object or draining relationship so we can navigate our days with nimbleness and gazelle-like-grace?
The annoyance of my keyboard not working as it’s designed introduces other elements that create more friction and possibility of failure. Mac’s are just supposed to work. It’s surprising when they don’t. We think life should just work too. It does a whole lot better when we purge the unnecessary and unhealthy from it!
I hope this week you concentrate on an area that needs freedom. Whatever is cluttering, stifling or holding you back, be intentional about a targeted purge.