July-August 2010, Vol. XXX, No. 6
Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters Convent of the Holy Spirit – Techny, Illinois 60082-6026
W
hat are you doing this Summer?
Here we are in the embrace of summer. Summer is a happy time—nature tells us so. The sun shines abundantly, the flowers and trees blossom, the ducks swim and care for their young, the crops grow and bear fruit. Typically we also enjoy more leisure and time out in nature. Summer is for more than just work. We take our vacations, make our retreats, celebrate jubilees, and reconnect with family and friends. Summer is more than a happy time; it is a space for renewal, wholeness and balance. It is meant to refresh our attitudes and bring more color and vitality back into our personal and communal journey. Hopefully, whatever we are doing this summer, it is lessening the strain and increasing our connectedness with the important people in our life.
We are the petals of the daisy of love and in connecting with one another, we find our ultimate connectedness to God. Dr. Richard Johnson
Lessening the strain: All work and no play can make us very dull people. We need to carry our attention away from our work and de-stress ourselves. We live best from a balanced perspective and it is here that we also find God. When we are stressed we are disconnected and ignorant. We forget our breath and think everything, including ourselves, is overly important. The Chinese proverb says it well: “Tension is who you think you should be, relaxation is who you are.” Taking some leisure time gives us back balance: it helps us stand straighter, gives us a truer sense of self and reconnects us to the positive flow of energy within and without. (continued on page 2)