how to say yes
How to say "no" is all very well, but it would be a crying shame to pass up some opportunities. I remember having a moment of complete panic when the birth of my son was approaching, and I began to realise what a juggling act I was going to face if I was to finish my half-done PhD as well as look after a new-born baby. A good friend made me enumerate all the things I had to do. "OK," he said. "If you assume that the baby and the PhD are essential, how much of everything else could you give up, delegate, or hire help for?"
I gave up quite a few pleasant but unnecesary commitments. I also learned to put my foot down with some people who insisted that unnecessary commitments were actually obligations. I got enough help to do what I needed to do, and I learned to buck the system here and there. Saying "yes" to the right things necessitates the skill of saying "no" to other things. Sometimes it means saying "no" to other people’s agendas too.
One Response to “how to say yes”
Comments
-
author musician theologian
Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
In an increasingly secularised society few people have a good working knowledge of the Bible. Yet a great deal of our culture is built on stories or ideas that come from the Bible. Literature, art, music, language and even the fabric of our society - such as our justice system - are built on Christian concepts and biblical references. The Writing on the Wall provides a fascinating introduction to the Bible's best-known, and most influential, stories. Each chapter gives some background to the text of the Bible, and shows how the stories have become enmeshed in Western culture. Adam and Eve, the ten plagues of Egypt, The Prodigal Son and Mary Magdalene all feature - along with how the Bible has influenced everyone from Shakespeare to Monty Python, and Caravaggio to Banksy. 
Giving It Up explores the Lenten idea of 'giving up', taking it beyond the traditional idea of simply abstaining from something, and suggesting instead that what we need to give up is our existing ideas about God. With a daily readings for each day of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, it follows the heroes of the Bible who had to give up their own too-small ideas about God.
This is Maggi’s bestselling book of daily readings for each day of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Advent is the beginning of the Church year, and marks the anticipation of the coming Messiah. These readings explore how beginnings and endings in our own lives are illuminated by the different Gospel narratives of Christ's coming.
-
Search
-
-
still not easy though