you're already there

I’m writing this from Portland Oregon where I’m attending the UU Ministers Association annual meeting, followed by the UUA General Assembly. This is a full week of events and programs, worship, workshops, speakers, meetings, singing, laughing, praying, reading, learning, and visiting with UU friends and colleagues from around the country. It’s invigorating and exhausting, inspiring and overwhelming.

The program book for the General Assembly listing all the hundreds of possibilities of what to attend from 7 AM to 11:30 PM every day, also has this helpful paragraph, applicable to most of our busy lives. It’s called “The Law of Personal Mobility”

“You, and only you, know where you can learn and contribute the most to the work that must take place. It demands that you use your mobility to go where you need to go and do what you need to do. If at any time you find that you are not learning or contributing you have the right and the responsibility to move…find another breakout session, visit the exhibit hall, take a walk in the sunshine, make a phone call. Make good use of your time.”

There’s a parallel law, not included in the program that I often invoke when I’m late, or harried or worried.

“Wherever you are is exactly where you need to be. Whoever you are talking to is exactly who you need to talk to. Whatever is before you at every moment is the most important, most beautiful, most sacred thing in the world.”