Joy of Missing out

A Poem from Michael Leunig. 

​At a recent Saturday morning liturgy at the House of Prayer we were introduced to JOMO (Joy of Missing Out) with a poem from Michael Leunig.  One line in the poem caught my attention ‘you spurn the treasure on the shelf in favour of your peaceful self;’ which reminded me of my journey over the past years gradually choosing and realizing the pleasure of emptiness and silence and taking time to enjoy a simple, peaceful and (as much as possible) natural life.
Leunig’s poem includes: … ‘And rush towards that shining thing. The latest bit of mental bling….trying to have it, see, it, do it, You simply know you won’t go through it; the anxious clamouring and need, This restless hungry thing to feed.’
Dr William Glasser, in his book Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom refers to this pressure as ‘external control psychology’ and he lists 7 behaviours that contribute to the breakdown in relationships: blame, criticize, complain, threaten, punish, manipulate and nag.   Alternately he suggests 7 behaviours that build relationships which he says is built on ‘internal motivation psychology’; respect, encourage, negotiate, trust, accept, listen, support.  He says that as humans we need connectedness and when we are not feeling connected we feel pain; the way we deal with this pain can be either effective or ineffective depending on our choice of behaviour.  He says that the first relationship we need to build is a relationship with ourselves. 
I use Choice Theory a lot and as a Spiritual Director at the HOP I am constantly reminded that as people of faith we are called upon to behave in effective ways to build our relationship with God - to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbour as ourselves. This is a constant choice, a motivation from within that is fed for me from people like Michael Leunig offering us JOMO!