I proposed the location for a Saturday night date with my husband and he agreed. While we waited our turn at mini-golf, we played skee-ball and a few rounds of Hoop Fever.
We had a great time. Our teen sons would be grateful they had not come along since while we played - me cheating and my husband diligently marking his own score with a glow-in-the-dark pencil - I was singing and dancing to the 1970s music that blared through out the facility.
Why did we end up here tonight? It all goes back to my decision a few months ago to join a wellness center and hire a personal trainer, a 23-year-old who has introduced me to planking, almond butter and many other new things. One concept I have learned from her is homeostasis: "The ability or tendency of an organism or cell to maintain internal equilibrium by adjusting its physiological processes."
On a physical level, this means our bodies want to stay as they are and will hold on to weight if we let them. To combat homeostasis, we need to mix up our exercise routines so our bodies can't predict what we are doing, Only then do we release our extra weight.
The same, it seems to me, applies to our souls. When we become comfortable, when our lives get numbingly predictable, we don't change. As Father Luigi Giussani puts it: "Our relationship with Mystery becomes degraded into presumption." Living without preconceptions is one of my personal goal. Keeping an open heart toward all experiences seems to me the way to grow in awareness of Mystery. Plus, it can bring a lot more joy and fun into my life!
Yes! A perfect illustration of the spiritual condition we need to be vigilant about. "Living without preconceptions"…a hard goal, but the more I preconceptions I reject, the happier I find myself, not just in those specific circumstances, but in my whole life.
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