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Little Ways for Living Today
Little Ways for Living Today
Little Ways for Living Today
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Little Ways for Living Today

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This collection of Becket’s inspirational messages from his social media pages shares his experience, strength, and hope in taking small steps over life’s large mountains. The 150 writings collected in this book have had an undeniably positive influence over hundreds of thousands of people through daily struggles. Becket has revealed his own simple methods for overcoming numerous trials while at the same time coming to a deeper understanding of inner strength and personal power. May this book of little ways be as meaningful for you in the reading as it was for Becket in the living and writing.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherBecket
Release dateJun 9, 2016
ISBN9780991459315
Little Ways for Living Today
Author

Becket

Becket has a BA in music composition, an MA in Systematic Theology, and an MS in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. He was a Benedictine monk for many years. For the last nine years, he has worked as Anne Rice’s assistant, and has spent that time learning from her.

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    Book preview

    Little Ways for Living Today - Becket

    1

    Broken crayons still color. Shattered mirrors still reflect light. Being broken does not mean that we are useless. Being shattered does not mean that we must be thrown out. Break a crayon and it becomes perfect for sharing with another person. Shatter a mirror and it becomes a mosaic of little reflections. Being broken means that we have the capacity to color the world more beautifully than a rainbow. Being shattered means that we have a greater power to reflect light.

    We must not see our broken life as pointless. We must not see the shattered pieces of our existence as a waste. Quite the contrary, in fact. Every broken and shattered piece of our life is a part of what makes each of us beautiful and meaningful. No one colors the world quite like you. No one reflects the light of existence the way you can.

    Today, I will color this world and brighten this day in my own special way because I am broken and shattered.

    2

    Writing a book does not happen in one draft. The magic of books we see on shelves in bookstores is that it appears as if the author wrote it in one long sitting, when the truth is that every intelligible book goes through a series of edits that can last weeks, and sometimes months. Personally, my books have anywhere from four to six drafts before they go to my editor, then one additional draft before publication.

    Life is like writing a book. Often it happens in drafts. Every day of our lives is a chance to edit the draft of the manuscript of our being. If my draft feels unsteady one day, I must maintain confidence that it will get better tomorrow because every day I improve—I not only become a better writer but also a better person who lives life to the fullest.

    Writing a book happens through little daily disciplines. Life is lived in the same way. Like writing a book, I must intend the plot of my personhood, I must command the characteristics of my convictions, and I must edit the narrative of my inadequacies objectively. Although I did not begin the book of my life, I am the co-author of my existence.

    Today, I will not be afraid to begin a new draft of my life.

    3

    Worry can be seen as either a bane or a blessing. The perspective depends on me. I used to think of worry as a cross to shoulder in times of difficulty and suffering. It was not simply an unwanted burden, but it was also becoming the cross along my own personal Way of Sorrows. The pivotal moment came when it would either destroy me or I would destroy it.

    Well, it is not yet destroyed, but it is not my cross anymore. I choose to transform it from my foe to my friend. Worry is ordinary, but wisdom amid worry is an extraordinary trait, one that I strive for every day. Trying to wisely see the natural tendency to worry, one becomes aware that worry can be a helpful emotion, in the way an ambulance siren is helpful. Worry tells me that a sickness is in me. Worry tells me that I need the hospital of kindness to heal.

    If I am worried, I take it as an opportunity to turn to someone else and ask for help, or confess my problems. Worry is a time to walk slowly, going step by step through my problems.

    Today, I transform worry from weakness to strength.

    4

    To get problems out of my head, I write them down, I talk about them with my friends. And I pray about them, which is also talking with a friend. For me, because I am a man of prayer, there is a time for ritual prayer and there is a time for natural prayer, a time for ordinary prayer and a time for organic prayer, a time for conservative prayer and a time for conversive prayer.

    Any kind of prayer helps because it helps me work out my problems practically—on a spiritual level, on a psychological level, and even on a physical level because when I pray out loud I can hear my problems being spoken audibly and it changes the way I think about them. Sometimes I say an Our Father and then I conclude with I hate someone or I feel tempted or I am suffering. The simple act of saying my problem aloud is a small relief.

    Today, I will use any kind of prayer I can to become a better person.

    5

    There are as many ways to heal as there are to be broken. Most commonly, many of us are broken when we let ourselves be the victim of a person who takes control of our lives. Such victimization leaves us feeling helpless and out of control, as if our lives have become unmanageable. We put the pieces of our lives back together by taking control one step at a time. And one step is friendship.

    In just the same way one person broke us, we must trust that another person can help put us back together. Being broken leaves us in solitude. And although solitude can be a companion for maintenance, it is not a healer. Friendship heals. We take control of our lives by making healthy relationships with people who accept our brokenness and accompany our progress toward healing, one step at a time.

    Such friends are patient, kind, humble, selfless, and are not easily upset. They do not hold our faults against us. They do not wrong us, and they accept the truth of who we are. They never give up on us, and they never stop trusting in our healing. They never stop hoping for our progress, and they never quit on us. Such friends are the embodiment of love.

    Today, I will heal with my friends.

    6

    Living life one day at a time is the only way I can most fully understand the mystery of my purpose in this world. Beyond that I get lost. Tomorrow is an undiscovered country that is greatly shaped by my participation in life today, right here, right now. The choices that I make in the present is my gift to myself tomorrow.

    I can choose to make my tomorrow tolerable or intolerable. I can choose to make my tomorrow a blessing or a burden. I can choose to make my tomorrow a gift or a grievance. Making a better tomorrow means that I might have to suffer a little by disciplining myself to make better choices in the present, but the little bit of suffering that I must endure, the little bit of disciplining that I must shoulder, is nothing compared to the happiness that I will have when the inevitable becomes the now.

    Today, my good choices in the present will be a present to myself tomorrow.

    7

    The past is unchangeable. The future is unknowable.

    The present is the only time that can be known and changed, but that can only happen by living in this moment, right here, right now, no matter how painful it is.

    For instance, this morning, my mind was tempted to think about bad things—things about the future or about other people’s lives, things that would never ever happen in my life, things that are not useful or practical. Because I fully believe that love is not only patient, but also kind, which once meant useful, I only want to think and do loving things, things that are full of patience with others and myself, things that are useful and practical to all lives.

    Knowing what was happening, I changed my mind. I stopped thinking bad thoughts and started thinking good ones. For me, good thoughts are reciting a litany of things that I believe in, things that I believe are real and true. So, because I believe in God, my mind recited my creed. I believe in God…

    Once that was done, the bad thoughts went away. I did a practical thing, and now I write this with love because I hope that this might be useful for you. Even if you do not believe in God, love is still a reality to believe in, because bad thoughts waste time, while love makes practical moments. Bad thoughts are useless. Love is useful.

    Today, I will know myself, I will change my mind, and I will be useful to myself and to others.

    8

    Fear is instinctive. Courage is reactive. Fear happens at least once a day to all of us, whether we know it or not, because it is a primary emotion. Anger, for instance, is generally a secondary emotion that flows out of fear. Sorrow is the same, flowing riotously out of a primary emotion like fearfulness.

    I cannot choose to be afraid; it just happens. But I can choose to be brave. Courage is neither a primary nor secondary emotion; it is an act of the will—like true love. I choose to love others, even when it is difficult to do so.

    Similarly, I choose to be brave when I am afraid. Often I am afraid to love people, so I have to be brave to desire their welfare. Courage could almost be thought of as a primary act of the will while love is secondary. Sometimes it takes a lot of bravery to love just one person, whether a husband, a wife, a child, a friend, a neighbor, a stranger...anyone! Being brave and being loving are so similar that it is easy to get them confused. But to truly love is to truly be brave because to truly love is to be truly fearless.

    Today, I will be brave enough to love fearlessly.

    9

    Every person is like an ocean. Sometimes a great tempest is clearly shaking the waves of our daily life. Other times everything appears to be quite calm on the surface. If we could glimpse the depths inside each

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