The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Who makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters, who restores my soul. Who leads me on the right path for the sake of the Name.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil, and my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life.

---Psalm 23 (amended)

There is little doubt that we are living in an anxious age. We want to believe that we enjoy change. In fact, humans enjoy stability far more, and adjusting to rapid changes and new information can throw us off balance more easily than we might think. We crave stasis, where everything is in balance. 

Our political climate, and that of the world, also leaves us off balance. In our fear and anxiety, our sympathetic neural network, which tells us we are in danger and acts to preserve our safety, is "on" more than it is meant to be, leading to physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional problems. Originally intended to keep us safe in short-duration, high-danger situations, we are becoming trained to believe that we are always in danger. Politicians here and abroad capitalize on this fear to manipulate people.

Existing in such a state, we, like the writer of Psalm 23, seek restful places and still waters not as an escape from the world but as a necessary landing place where we can relax and allow healing and wisdom to take center stage for a while. Physiologically, these respites engage the parasympathetic network, creating restful and peaceful states that give us time and space to engage in higher thinking functions, deeper spiritual connections, and calmer mental states.

This page will be a work in progress to help you. The resources here are vetted by me and are not necessarily the opinions of the First Congregational Church or any member or part of it. Most resources are from Christian sources: mystics, contemplatives, and others who have learned, taught, and tapped into centuries of thought collectively known as spirituality. Occasionally, I will include wisdom from other traditions, but I hope these are easily translatable to religious or non-religious settings.

Rev. Dr. Mark J. Suriano