Our culture champions excess over balance, including how we partake in society.  We are presented with a false sense that there are only two options — total immersion or complete disengagement.  It is as if we can choose to withdraw entirely, refusing to sign up, join in, or make any offering… or we can agree to participate, only to be swept up in a frenetic "run with the bulls" sort of undertaking. 

It is hard to find a middle ground for measured involvement in many areas of life today.  Just look at the constant barrage of messages and notifications that fill our inboxes  once we have “opted in” to something, whether that’s school, professional life, activities, clubs, faith communities, or a particular cause.  The demands for attention and action quickly become unrelenting.

Faced with the chaos and mania around us, how can we form a reasonable, tranquil lifestyle that allows for good health, work, play, and leisure?  How do we participate in society without being overrun by it?

We must remember that we are not powerless.  We can advocate for ourselves by refusing to give in to the all-or-nothing systems presented to us.  We can employ creative boundaries to cap just how much we are willing to give.  We can decide not to absorb the guilt directed at us for modifying another’s unrealistic expectations. In short, we can stop selling ourselves out to overwhelm.  

Friends, let’s not resign ourselves to a pattern that relegates our physical, mental, and spiritual well-being to low priority.  We have agency, through our voice and our choices, to establish a better way of “doing life.” And when we do, we will inspire a revision of the misguided assumption that more is better.  We will bless future generations by reclaiming the calm our world so vitally needs. 

May you be inspired!