August Monthly Musings Oh, summer why do you end so quickly? I do love the cooler beautiful months of September and October, but am already missing the fellowship, outsideyness, and blue skies of August. Outsideyness? Is that a word? This summer, on the good to best days, I hit the pause button as often as I can to linger on my backyard deck and breath in God's stillness. Savor this season. Writing this column each month, reflecting on the past 30 days, gathers the gifts of time into my soul. Gratefulness grows and joy rises. Time races by, but moments embraced, remain rich treasures to behold. Each month I look back at what I am discovering, learning, and exploring in life – I call these my monthly musings. Capturing these special moments gives meaning, depth, and delight to life. Let’s wake up to the wonders in the ordinary all around us. I record what I notice on the pages of my Monthly Musings Journal. You can use anything, scrapes of papers, a journal, or a … [Read more...]
The Spiritual Practice of Wonder
Wonder is one of my three W's for 2019. The spiritual practice of wonder enriched my silent retreat earlier this month. As I stilled my heart and mind, God's wonders revealed themselves more and more and soon I was surrounded by delights found in his creation. What is Wonder? According to the dictionary, this experience is “a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.” Another way of saying this is: “rapt attention or astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one’s experience.” This sensation often carries an element of surprise or seeing something new or in a fresh way. There may be hint of curiosity and joy too. Spirituality and Practice offers this insight: “Wonder begins in the senses, comes alive in the imagination, and flourishes in adoration of the Divine. It arises from our natural curiosity about the grand adventure of life.” Why Not Wonder? What stops us from this gift … [Read more...]
What is a Silent Retreat?
What is a silent retreat? I mentioned on several social media posts about the silent retreat I attended earlier in August. I was amazed at the questions about this type of spending time with God. The interest in the deepening of our relationship with our Creator is growing and I am finding more people curious about what this practice may bring to their spiritual journey. Going on retreat is an essential spiritual discipline for me. Time for silence and learning informs the mind and forms the spirit. I leave refreshed, renewed, transformed – not quite the same as I arrived. What is a Silent Retreat? Mother Teresa said, “We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.” A spiritual retreat is an opportunity to slow down to spend time with God. Leaving behind the … [Read more...]
Visio Divina – The Practice and Resources
Visio Divina deepened my time with the Lord at my recent silent retreat. This a slow contemplative prayer practice similar to Lectio Divina or sacred reading. Visio Divina is Latin for divine seeing and involves praying with art and allowing God to speak to us through the use of an image. Prayerful consideration of and interaction with a photograph in the magazine, icon, piece of art, or other visual representation invites us to experience the divine in a unique and powerful way. This is the statue from my recent retreat that brought me closer and loved deeply by God. This practice enhanced my time with the Lord as I listened with the eyes of my heart, soaking in his love and gazing at this art piece. Meeting God Through Art: Visio Divina Meeting God Through Art: Visio Divina. – A Guided Prayer Journal with Images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a new book by my friend. Therese Kay. This book accompanied me on my retreat and inspired me to explore various art and … [Read more...]
The Spiritual Practice of Rinse and Repeat
Rinse and Repeat. I am hearing this jargon in so many conversations lately. #rinserepeat. Trending slang. It is also called the shampoo algorithm. You know the instructions on the shampoo bottle label? The phrase is a funny reference taken from hair washing guidance and applied to any action that needs to be replicated many times in order to reach a goal or change a behavior. You could use these words for ordinary actions. Get up, go to work, come home, bed – rinse and repeat. When we face a habit, desire, or practice that is best implemented on a never-ending cycle. Or when we fight with an imperfect or resistant obstacle such a weight loss. To achieve something great, it often takes weeks, months, or years of planning and hard work. You go through phases of trial and error. You take two steps forward and one step back. You try this, you try that. You start again. You rinse and repeat. Basically, it means to do it again. Two words that also contain … [Read more...]
Monthly Musings – What I Learned in July
July Monthly Musings What? It's the end of July already? I don't know about the rest of you but sure seems like time is flying faster than ever before. I want to savor summer. Enjoy life. Taste the fresh fruits and veggies. Feel the sun on my face. Sand in my toes. Swing on my backyard swing. Spend time with friends and family. Hear water rippling in my pond. Praise God along with the chirping birds. Breathing in these types of moments pauses time momentarily and allows joy to seep deeper into my soul. What are you savoring about summer? Each month I look back at what I am discovering, learning, and exploring in life – I call these my monthly musings. Capturing these special moments gives meaning, depth, and delight to life. Let’s wake up to the wonders in the ordinary all around us. I record what I notice on the pages of my Monthly Musings Journal. You can use anything, scrapes of papers, a journal, or a calendar. Copies of my Monthly Musings Journal are … [Read more...]
Summer Reading
What is on your summer reading pile? I like to periodically update you all on what I am currently reading. Here are three I have read lately that are lingering in my mind and heart: A Prayer Journal – Flannery O'Connor Interesting collection of journal entries of writer Flannery O'Connor written between 1946 and 1947. Most are her prayers/conversations with God and her discernment as she discovers herself as a writer. What a great writer even in her journal entries. Lovely words like this: "Dear God, I cannot love Thee the way I want to. You are the slim crescent of a moon that I see and my self is the earth's shadow that keeps me from seeing all the moon. The crescent is beautiful and perhaps that is all one like I am should or could see; but what I am afraid of, dear God, is that my self shadow will grow so large that it blocks the whole moon, and that I will judge myself by the shadow that is nothing. I do not know you God because I am in the way. Please help me to … [Read more...]
Paying Attention When God’s Speaks – Come thy Fount of Every Blessing
I wasn't paying attention. The spiritual practice of paying attention is a key way to open your heart and ears when God speaks. But last week during the worship portion of Speak Up conference, I allowed distractions to take me away from the moment of praise and attuning to the Lord. If fact, I stewed critically about the old, out of date words in the hymn on the screen before me. I loved the melody, but my heart scrutinized the lyrics in what I believed to be old fashioned "what in it for me?" narrow-focused terms. I silently mouthed the first two verses with aimless alertness. Then God surprised me with tears when I sang the next verses. Immediately I was present, before him. Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God… How His kindness yet pursues me Mortal tongue can never tell… Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here's my heart, O … [Read more...]