Today's Meditation -- "There are two equally....

...dangerous extremes -- to shut reason out, and to let nothing else in." That's from Pascal.

Wow, extremes at work again. I believe very much in reason and am constantly looking to reason things out. Yet I understand that reason does not work all the time for everyone. Maybe not even most of the time. And I still am looking the reasonable answer.

I feel that if I can figure out the reasoning, I can control the outcome. God knows I love to control things. So much so that I will not openly and fully listen to others or even my inner conscious. I will deny those thoughts and feelings because I can put reason around them. I am closing out another possibility or opportunity to move on with my life in a positive way because I want to, or feel I need to, stay muddled in my search for reason.

I so badly want to be able to take that leap of faith and believe that I can and will turn my life over to my Higher Power. Yet my mind is working it's addictive reasoning into what the end result of turning my life over to my Higher Power would mean in the end. I see my life turning into some sort of zealous religious individual that is pious about everything. I can't see the middle ground of this spectrum. I can't see that many people lead a spirtual life and are well grounded in a positive, healthy life instead of one lead by extremes.

I am so mired in this black and white thinking of everything that it gets in the way of me moving on. I'm tired of it and want to move on from it. Today I will practice the adage, 'Act as if'. I will act as if I no longer am mired in extreme thinking and look for the middle ground in everything. There doesn't have to be a right or a wrong. There just is. I don't need to know the reason for everything. I will accept that things are. I will accept people as they are, including all of their strengths and weaknesses.

Typing that paragraph and reading it is very calming to me. It seems to take some of the edge off of the day for me. I'm so use to having to judge things that when I take away that need, I can mentally relax. I don't have to waste any emotional or intellectual energy putting things in their place or trying to figure out how to correct things. I can just accept things. Thank you Higher Power for this help.