Day: December 9, 2019

Comfort zones

~ osasuoviawe ~ Leave a comment

There is nothing wrong with being comfortable in life.

The advice to get out of your comfort zone, is one that should come with a caveat – first, you must outgrow your comfort zone.

Why should you get out of your comfort zone, when there is still unexplored space within it?
Why should you get out of your comfort zone, when it serves you?
Why should you get out of your comfort zone, because everyone says that’s what growth requires?

Study.

Only the inexperienced gets out of a comfort zone which still has a wide area within, to explore.

Your comfort zone should become uncomfortable, before you get out of it, unless of course, you’re masochistic, and you get the thrill out of needless pain.

I have seen some images advising people to move from their comfort zone to a fear zone and then to a learning zone and finally arriving at a growth zone. It sounds noble, but it is very specific advice that should be broadly ignored.

The greats played within their comfort zones. All stretches out of their comfort zones were necessitated, not necessarily wanted.

The trick it seems, is to be ready when the need arises for you to expand your comfort zone. Some do this by improving their leverage, others do this by increasing their alternatives.

There is nothing wrong with your comfort zone. You have just not been able to fully understand how to use it, so you compare your comfort zone to another’s comfort zone and you call theirs endearing names like fear zone, learning zone, stretch zone or growth zone.

Quit comparing. When it is time for you to expand your comfort zone, you will not even be able to choose otherwise.

Comfort zones are like shoe sizes, you increase them as you grow, and then when you are fully grown, you work with one till you die.

Comfort zones are neither stress-free nor friction-free.

This should go without saying, but in a world that has grown to abhor all appearances of comfort, it is worth repeating – “There is nothing wrong with being comfortable in life.”

– Osasu Oviawe

Let it be

~ osasuoviawe ~ Leave a comment

Luke 1:26-38
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And he came to her and said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!”
But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How shall this be, since I have no husband?”
And the angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.”
And Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Homily:

There are moments that separate “before” from “after”. Moments that separate the “old” from the “new”. Moments that define both time and the times. Moments that change our direction and the space we live in.

These moments come to all of us, at various stages of our lives, sometimes dressed as unmerited grace, and other times, dressed as unavoidable disgrace.

These moments help us become more conscious of areas that we might have knowingly or unknowingly ignored, changing what seems out of our control, to a priority requiring our decision.

The immaculate conception was one of those moments.

I pray that when such moments come our way, we have the grace to accept it, with the words, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”