Finding your center

During the course of my day, I often go to Owens Hall, the main residence for retired Sisters. And somehow, almost without fail, I find myself there at 11:30am, during Mass in Owens Chapel. Today as I walked through, I overheard a bit of Father Hopcus’ homily on using resources, and stayed to listen for a few minutes.

In the homily, Father Hopcus said that if one holds Jesus as one’s center, then they will be lead naturally to use resources appropriately. I thought this was a fascinating point. Usually we think of resource use in terms of “what is cheapest” or “how much we ought to use”. But Father Hopcus was making a different point. Rather than admonishing people for what they ought to do, or what is most economically proper, or anything else, he was suggesting that by keeping a solid center, the right actions would follow naturally from that.

In my experience as someone attempting to live a more sustainable life, I find the choices one must make to be dizzying. And even more difficult than choosing what I ought to do is the ability to just stick with it. To stay true to a sustainable lifestyle, even though Wal-Mart is cheaper than the local farm, and my friends complain about how cold my house is, and that it’s so much easier to just drive instead of bike, and being tired of harping on the children to turn the lights off when you leave a room over and over again.

I believe that a sustainable lifestyle is more satisfying and fulfilling, but that doesn’t mean that it is always easier, and it is certainly swimming against the current in our society. I like the idea that having a solid center can help one to more naturally choose appropriate uses of resources. Keeping Jesus as one’s center is an obvious choice for the Sisters and many people; for others, perhaps keeping one’s family, or one’s children as their center will help lead them to use resources wisely. I can imagine many different “centers”, depending on what will be most helpful for that individual.

So have you found your center? That thing which keeps you on the right track, mindful of how you are using the wealth of the world? Is there anything that keeps you on the straight and narrow? My family and my community are my center. I love our town, and want to instill that love in my children. I worry about how I will feed my family in a town that cannot produce enough food to feed itself, in a world where food costs are increasingly tied to fuel costs. And so I work hard to strengthen our local food resources, support our local small farmers, and find new ways to make our town more self-sufficient. My center calls me to use the resources of Creation to build a strong and resilient community, and it’s my center that gets me to stick with it all. What does your center call you to do?