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Living Scattered

May 22, 2009 By Jean Wise

scattered healthyspirituality.org

Scattered!

Lately I have felt scattered.

Divided between too many deadlines, rushing through life, and wondering if I am getting any place at all. My roots feel shallow and in need of deep watering.

Scattered!

So I pushed the pause button this morning. I stopped to be – rather than to do.

I took a deep breath and paused. I read my Bible. I lingered in prayer. I harvested my journal. All spiritual habits that ground me and help me worship God, not my accomplishments.

Basking in God’s presence renews me and redirects me.

Many of us draw strength from prayer and scriptures, but writing my thoughts and feelings in my journal is also a foundational spiritual practice. I record not only my words, but what I believe God says.

I harvest my journal by rereading, highlighting and summarizing my previous entries. I see patterns emerge and notice where I missed God’s whispers.

And He surprised me this morning. Where I felt I like a failure (once again) by being scattered, God said, “It is ok to be scattered. Look at the garden with its array of emerging plants and rainbow spring colors. All scattered beauty. All part of life.”

I have new appreciation of living scattered. Life may feel scattered to me but God is in control and is sowing a beautiful garden. What seems scattered to my small perspective is a work of art to God.

My writing buddy, Johnnie Donley, sent me this poem from Helen in Egypt by H.D. (Hilda Doolittle). It’s a collection of poems that tell the story of Helen and Achilles after the fall of Troy. Here is the portion of the poem that rings true of my pause today:

there is no before or after,
there is one finite moment
that no infinite joy can disperse

or thought of past happiness
tempt from or dissipate;
now I know the best and the worst;

the seasons revolve around
a pause in the infinite rhythm
of the heart and of heaven.

A pause in the infinite rhythm of the heart and of heaven.
A heavenly pause for a scattered soul.

How do you take pauses?

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Filed Under: prayer, spiritual practices

Comments

  1. blankFruitful Vine2 says

    May 22, 2009 at 3:50 pm

    I need to do this. It’s been a reallly full week and it still continues into the weekend. Thanks for tweeting about this. You have helped me to make that decision to regroup and spend extra time with the Lord.

  2. blankJean Wise says

    May 22, 2009 at 3:10 pm

    Thank you for all your comments. As Robin noted, spring can be a stressful and hectic time. Even more so to take a “pause that refreshes” with our Lord!

  3. blankRobin Archibald says

    May 22, 2009 at 1:57 am

    Thanks for your post, Jean.

    Spring is always a difficult time for me because there is so much to be done in the garden and in this old fixer upper. We also want to partake of the freedom of warmer days and less schoolwork. So while spring should be the best time of year, it all too often becomes the most difficult because of the increased demands on my time/energies and because of my raised expectations.

    And this spring, we’ve had an added difficulty.

    So thanks for your words to remind me to take time to be with God. Tomorrow, I’ll weed. And I’ll try to let that time be meditative on the scripture that I’ll read before going out.

  4. blankClella says

    May 22, 2009 at 1:40 am

    That’s what I too hope to do here and also when I arrive home. Thank you for reminding me how important it is. Good post.

  5. blankJohnnie says

    May 22, 2009 at 12:58 am

    I’m inspired to take a much needed heavenly pause . . . and to re-read Helen of Egypt! Beautiful and encouraging post, Jeanie*

Healthy Spirituality – a sacred space to nurture your faith, grow closer to God, and belong to a community, walking together on life’s journey. This blog is written by author, speaker and retreat leader Jean Wise

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