I picked up a recent issue of Women’s Press, a local newspaper dedicated to women writers, women’s issues and advertising targeted toward women’s products and services. One of the columns featured the question: "What pulls you off center?" I found it to be a compelling question. What does pull me off center? What is ‘center’? What gets me back to that center?

I have noticed that the rhythm of my week often begins ‘off center". Mondays….this is probably true for most people…may begin fairly centered but as the day progresses, the centeredness I may have achieved on Sunday becomes clogged with lists, details, things to be done, and I can find myself starting to spin off center. Monday flows directly into Tuesday which, for me, usually holds lots of meetings in which my lists grow longer, the details thicker, until by Tuesday evening I can feel as if my head is twice as large as it was on Sunday…I’m ready to topple over with the weight of it. Does this ever happen to you?

Over time I have come to know that this is just how it is, how it will be, and have adopted some self-talk to "let it be". I rest into it, not fighting the flow of it. Wednesday becomes the day when I can make my way systematically through what needs to be done and usually, by day’s end, I have waded through the piles and righted myself. Ahhhh…..

That feeling of being off center can come at any time….when things don’t go as planned, when illness strikes, when ‘things’ are lost or misplaced, when children are upset or disappointed,and on and on. Deep breathing always helps…..getting in touch with my life Source….slowing down my accelerated heart rate in the process….and coming to rest in the Great Land of Perspective. In this land, my center is calm and steady, sure in the words of Julian of Norwich that "all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." Perhaps not how I planned….or how I wanted….but well.

"Heal our inner sight, O God, that we may know the difference between good and evil. Open our eyes that we may see what is true and what is false. Restore us to wisdom that we may be well in our own souls. Restore us to wisdom that we and our world may be well." J. Philip Newell