Radical Sufficiency

77% Weekly Newsletter

Human nature seems such that we’re never truly satiated or satisfied with our life experiences.
enough
The status quo is never quite good enough. We want even our best moments to be repeated, repeated again and then improved.
We want to live in an eternal, exaggerated state of well-being.
And, we know we can’t.
We know we can’t fill ourselves with money, beauty, power, or material things.
And, yet we try to get more.
 
Are you satisfied with what you have accomplished in your life so far?
Chances are you’re not.
Hardly any of us are.
I’m going to urge you to practice. The notion of taking a Sabbath is a chance, once a week, to take off from your usual way of doing things and for you to experience radical sufficiency. Once a week rehearse (fake it until you make it) what you have, what you do, and what you are is enough. Enoughness.
As a spiritual-religious professional, I’m going to assign this to you as homework. I want you to take one out of seven days this week off from striving.
(And, I’m willing to go easy on you… if you just want to start with being content with what you’ve accomplished for five minutes, that would be fine.)
The author Franz Kafka once said,

The fact that our task is exactly commensurate with our life gives it the appearance of being infinite.

In other words, we don’t think we’ll ever be done. I’ve seen enough people die (and I’m sure you’ve known enough as well) to know that the truth is we are all “done” at some point. We need to be satisfied. We need to be satiated.
This week’s #wisdom_biscuit:
Be filled with what you have.
At least for right now.

Except if you are Jenn F.

I’m here to help. As far as I can figure out, that’s why I’m here. To help. A saying attributed to John Wesley: Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As

Read More »

Misplaced Righteous Indignation

I’m fuming. FUMING. F-U-M-I-N-G! I’ve just removed my key from the front door and crossed over the threshold. The setting is my first floor apartment at 7 Keren Hayesod in Jerusalem.  I lived there for a year — two buildings down and across the street from the Super Sol where King George starts. About a 1¼-mile walk from the Western

Read More »

Refractory Anxiety

I am supposed to arrive at the wedding rehearsal at 4 p.m. I planned on arriving 15–20 minutes early. Because I don’t like being late. However, I took a wrong turn. At the intersection of the I-5 South and the I-405 South, I went the wrong way. Now, I’ll have to turn around in a mile and a half and

Read More »
77% Weekly Newsletter
77% Weekly Newsletter