I never know what to expect when I wake up in the morning. Will it be bright and sunny? Gray and cloudy? Misty and foggy? Sometimes my weather app says it’s sunny, but my eyes tell me it’s foggy. Regardless, the words that came to me this morning were same and different.
In this pandemic, the normal rhythms of our lives have been changed and a lot of us have trouble keeping track of what day it is. All the days seem the same when you are not going to a physical office, or church, or yoga class.
Even though they feel the same in many ways, though, our days are different too. The weather, our moods, some of our daily tasks are not the same from day to day.
I do best when there is a mix of same and different in my days. I need the stability of sameness - a wake-up time, a prayerful walk, family time in the evening, a bedtime - in order to cope with and even be energized by difference.
Like so many of us, I don‘t ever really know what the day will bring. I can plan, but those plans can be upended in a moment by a phone call that someone is sick, or in crisis, or a meeting that goes differently than I had imagined, creating new work or a change in direction.
Today I took my same walk, but the ocean and the sky both looked different than they did yesterday. I noticed different plants. I slowed down in different places. Later I will do something different - something I have never done - lead an online service of lament and longing. Yet there will be sameness, too. The same online platform we’ve been using for Sundays. Scriptures we have read before. Prayers.
What do you notice about sameness and difference in your days? What keeps you steady? What gives you energy? Where do you find peace? How might our alertness to the balance between same and different help us navigate our days?