STAY CENTERED.

"Centered in God's presence, I find peace."

My first thought is, "I wish." What does it mean to be "centered"? It sounds like something from yoga, and I'm not into yoga, although maybe I should be. Between being overwhelmed every day, I have "new normal" days when I just go nuts trying to cope with my mom's dementia.

"Centered." It brings thoughts to me of the eye of the hurricane. Or maybe the eye of a tornado. Do tornadoes have eyes? The only one I ever saw was moving too fast for me to tell.

I try to stop and think about this and not just let these thoughts bounce around in my brain.

When I am centered, I am balanced. In balance, I am steady, confident, empowered, peaceful, and strong.

Unlike a hurricane, I have to stop spinning to find my balance. I am not a top or a gyroscope. I may live in the midst of a hurricane, but I need to rest, to connect to God. Without an anchor, I just keep spinning like a kite on a string in the March wind.

I need to be grounded on a rock. There was nothing more grounded on this earth than the Cross at Calvary.

Centering does not eliminate suffering, but it allows me to stop and connect to God and to find peace in the middle of my own private hurricane.

"Centered in God's presence, I find peace." It is not the peace that the world gives.