Many of us are or have been “on vacation” or in the immediate past. Some will beon vacation in the near future. The word “vacation” is a form of the word “vacate;” that is, “to empty.” What is it that we should empty? It seems to me that our goals should be to empty our lives of frustrations, anger, negative thoughts and negative judgments of others, worries, envy of others (that is, desiring what they have), or jealousy toward others (meaning guarding what we have—much like dog guarding from other dogs the last scrap of food in his dish—even though he has eaten his fill).
How do we do this?
- Vigorous physical activity: play…have fun
- Prayer: entering into a mental state of total relaxation and listening for the Divine Spirit of love and liberation; expressing to God our deepest concerns, confessing our sins, receiving forgiveness, listening for Divine guidance.
- Reading,or some other way, to fill our minds with that which is positive. Read the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7) or Philippians 4 or the Proverbs or history, or some novels, etc.
In a famous book of a couple of generations ago LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE, a famous television star. Art Linkletter, proved that frequent, long and hearty laughter drives out the demons of worry and negativity.
The eminent Cardiologist, Wojciech Mazur, (who spoke from our pulpit a few months ago,) sends some of his patients to “laughter school” where one’s capacity for real laughter is cultivated. Dr. Mazur is right! Laughter IS excellent medicine for cleaning cobwebs from our minds and re-orienting us.!
Leave a Reply