I’m thinking about this word. Overwhelm. I know so many professional workaholics, and they happily admit it, sometimes even proudly so. Why is this? For the majority of my working life, I have been somewhere close to that term. For about 15 years, I was a full-time single parent, and more than full-time pastor, and involved in many other activities…. it didn’t seem like there was much choice….i look back now, and I realize that it was only with the help of my church village, that my two small children moved towards adulthood. There were so many small/daily miracles that came my way to help me move through the days. But I was way over extended almost all of the time. In recent years, I have added practices and behaviors into my life that have brought great serenity, daily meditation, spiritual direction, walking 3 to 4 miles a day, swimming three times a week, coffee with good friends frequently, planning enjoyable activities on my own time. Life feels so incredibly wonderful and graced. But it took a long time to get here…. Keeping centered and sustained is a priority in this last third of my life, and sometimes I wonder if getting through those years of slogging was necessary to get me here? In the end, it’s all Grace, and so much is out of our control, but there’s so many practices that we can build on that make life good.