[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.98″ text_font_size=”18px”]<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 10 days before Christmas. I look at my beautiful tree, the Christmas village and other decorations I put up with so much love and excitement, and I just want to sit down and enjoy it all. I want to \u2018give up\u2019 or \u2018surrender\u2019 the pressure of getting the end-of-year work done, accompanied by planning for next year.<\/p>\n
I also want to \u2018surrender\u2019 shopping for groceries and gifts, but even though I heavily depend on online retailers and their delivery people, I still have to do it. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
Because \u2018surrender\u2019 is not about avoiding stuff that needs to be done; it\u2019s about surrendering control over the outcome of each thing we do.<\/strong>\u00a0(It’s ok if I don’t get the ‘right’ gift… \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n This week, I\u2019ve been talking a lot about surrender with my friend Dr. Ray Hellmann (who hosted a wonderful living room concert last Sunday.) Dr. Ray is an addiction specialist who, after decades of working with addicts, says that surrender (to God\/ Higher Power) is crucial in the recovery process.<\/p>\n And yet, he says,\u00a0\u201cWe can\u2019t prescribe or teach \u2018surrender.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s a matter of Grace – those moments in which a place deep within us gets touched and we feel connected to God. Those moments of Grace help us to trust completely and remember that we don\u2019t ever have to rely on our \u2018own\u2019 strength, but that the much bigger forces of life and love sustain us. In those moments, we surrender.<\/p>\n We still must do the daily work – but we can handle<\/strong><\/span> I ponder:<\/em><\/p>\n Even though all of us can reasonably recognize different contexts of surrender, I think our minds are still resistant to surrender because we have learned that \u2018surrender\u2019 is a bad thing. For example, I watched a lot of WWII movies in which death was always better than \u2018surrender.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n So there is always a part of me that is hesitant about to whom I\u2019m surrendering my power\u2026 Which is good, of course, because I certainly don\u2019t want to surrender to the wrong power (and unfortunately, I have done that in my past.) But this resistance can get in the way – especially when we don\u2019t spend enough time connecting with God\/ Source of Life and Love, and we don\u2019t cultivate the awareness of God\u2019s presence in our lives.<\/em><\/p>\n My conclusion: we must spend time in meditation\/ contemplation\/ stillness and learn to connect.<\/p>\n Now,\u00a0AS A SPECIAL GIFT<\/strong>,\u00a0I\u2019m sharing a Chapter on Surrender with you.\u00a0Click here to listen to the audio reflection<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0here to read the chapter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Let me know what you think!<\/p>\n And if you\u2019d like to listen to the other 24 Gifts, it\u2019s still not too late to order! You can order my book \u201c25 Gifts for Christmas\u201d<\/a>\u00a0or just order the daily audio reflections<\/a>.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider show_divider=”on” _builder_version=”3.0.98″]\u00a0 CONNECT WITH ME<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_code _builder_version=”3.0.98″ text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”|||370px”][et_social_follow icon_style="flip" icon_shape="rounded" icons_location="top" col_number="auto" outer_color="dark"][\/et_pb_code][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.98″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_code _builder_version=”3.0.98″][inf_infusionsoft_inline optin_id="optin_5"][\/et_pb_code][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.98″ text_font_size=”18px”] It\u2019s 10 days before Christmas. I look at my beautiful tree, the Christmas village and other decorations I put up with so much love and excitement, and I just want to sit down and enjoy it all. I want to \u2018give up\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tatianacameron.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tatianacameron.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tatianacameron.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tatianacameron.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tatianacameron.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/tatianacameron.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tatianacameron.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tatianacameron.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tatianacameron.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tatianacameron.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
the pressure and stress of it much better \ud83d\ude42<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\n[\/et_pb_divider][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row background_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.1)” _builder_version=”3.0.98″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text admin_label=”connect with me” _builder_version=”3.0.98″]<\/p>\n