I’ve been stressed lately by many things, and it leaves me open to snappishness. Then last week on Elizabeth Duffy’s blog I read this:
When we feel angry, and want to breathe fire, we should take a drink of water and hold it in our mouths. Boil the water with our tongues. Go somewhere to be alone, holding the water in our mouth until it cools. Sit down in the bathroom if necessary. Maybe no one will bother us there. And soon the Spirit will descend on us.
(The full text of the blog post is here.)
Wowza. This puts me to shame. It puts my supposed inability to hold my tongue in a different perspective. It speaks to a fierce–even ferocious–determination to let anger pass by, so that the Holy Spirit can enter into the gap.
Water, anyone?
