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how we spend our lives…

how we spend our lives…

Last updated on: October 25, 2016 at 7:16 pm by Rev. Deanna Vandiver

how we spend our lives… 2016-10-25T19:16:37-06:00 Rev. Deanna Vandiver

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Back before we became adult adults, my younger sister and I would call each other whenever we were overwhelmed with life and one of us would remind the other:

Breathe in.
Breathe out.
If you forget this
Nothing else matters.

Friends, let us take a moment to be grateful for this essential element of life:

Breathe in
Breathe out

Pay attention

Breathe in
Breathe out

Pay attention

I was reminded to pay attention not long ago, when I was participating an Undoing Racism training with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. The Center for Ethical Living and Social Justice Renewal’s Board has committed to going to at least one Undoing Racism training a year, as part of our collective commitment to become an anti-racist institution, as well as for our own individual good.

This particular training was led by Berwick “Mahdi” Davenport and Renee Corrigan and there was something a little different in this training from the 14 or so others I had participated in.

Every trainer for the Institute for Survival and Beyond is called upon to be an organizer in their own lives. Mahdi’s other organizer ‘hat’ is that of life coach.

And he brought that hat with him to this training.

When someone said “maybe next year I’ll get this at a deeper level,” Mahdi was quick to point out that now is the time to get it – “what makes you so sure you will be here next year?”

Like Mahdi said, people act like we have forever to be who we are called to be. And yet we are promised nothing past this moment.

And it is the moments that make up our lives, however long they may be.

As Annie Dillard writes in her book of essays, The Writing Life, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.”

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.

How are you spending your days?

Breathe in
Breathe out

Pay attention

and love, love, love…

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