I read the following prayer by James Finley, today in Richard Rohr’s daily blog post and several thoughts came to my mind. The picture below is of a 10,000 year old cave painting called “Tree of Life” and it appeared above the prayer.

“Tree of Life” A 10,000 year old cave painting.

May each of us be so fortunate as to be overtaken by God in the midst of little things. May we each be so blessed as to be finished off by God, swooping down from above or welling up from beneath, to extinguish the illusion of separateness that perpetuates our fears. May we, in having our illusory, separate self slain by God, be born into a new and true awareness of who we really are: one with God forever. May we continue on in this true awareness, seeing in each and every little thing we see the fullness of God’s presence in our lives. May we also be someone in whose presence others are better able to recognize God’s presence in their lives, so that they, too, might know the freedom of the children of God.

It is difficult to be overtaken by God in the midst of little things. We run from one commitment to the next without having time to pay attention. I don’t believe God wants us to spend our lives like this. Colossians 3:1 – 2 says, “Since you have been raised up to be with Christ, you must look for the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand.” (New Jerusalem Bible). Christ is in the little things meaning we must find Christ in the midst of them. As much as I dislike being a TBI survivor one benefit is, I HAVE to slow down. It gives me time to look for the things that are above which most often are the little things.

We think we can do it alone – or rather separately – which isn’t true at all. It seems those of us who have disabilities are more aware of this fact than others and it is so very true. I sometimes find myself not doing things because I believe someone who doesn’t have my TBI challenges can do it better or faster. It seems our society rewards folks who work or play “better” than anyone else but often “better” is a judgment call. I’m also coming to the conclusion that “faster” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be for often, much is lost in the process.