Feeling Anxious

In an environment tinged with anxiety we can find it difficult to stay in the present.  We are anxious about elections, rising gas prices, the destruction of the environment, the lack of job security, aberrant weather patterns, not to mention all the personal stresses that leave us feeling like a weary hummingbird at an empty feeder.  The undercurrent of angst that runs through our lives and our culture steals our joy, shaves off our hope, and leaves us feeling slightly sick and not knowing why.

A cure for this irritating inner static is not solving all the problems that leer so menacingly in our soul.  The cure is bringing ourselves to an awareness of the realness of life that is before us this very moment.  When we choose to shift channels, so to speak, the anxiety that holds us in its clenched fist must let us go.  In that moment of freedom, we might notice the scent of freshly baked bread, or the cool touch of a granite tabletop, or the soft rainwater dropping rhythmically from sky to ground, or the warm air flowing through our nostrils, or the taste of an apple.  Suddenly our heart is full again.  We might even breathe a prayer of gratitude for the God who gives us life.