September 19, 2025- Discipline and grace

We feel better with the certainty of misery than the misery of uncertainty. 

~Virginia Satir

The familiar comforts us. Our habits are a child’s favorite blanket, the one with the vomit all over it in the middle of the night that she still insists on having before settling back into sleep. Our habits are familiar. We know what we’re going to do and can anticipate the results of doing just that.

Not all of our habits serve us. There are behaviors we repeat over and over, with results that are of little or no benefit to us. We repeat them because they are that blanket. Might it serve us better to throw them in the wash and opt for a clean blanket?

Discipline allows us to match our actions with our intentions. Discipline allows us to switch off the auto pilot, to take control of our choices. Grace allows us to acknowledge the pull of our habits and our impulses. Grace allows us to forgive ourselves when we occasionally stray from our intentions.

We don’t have to get this right all at once. We are a work in progress, and progress takes time. With each day, we must seek small, sustainable changes that will create greater alignment between our choices and our dreams. Discipline and grace will move us there.