Daily Devotion - April 1
I will send a brief message each day while we are pausing gathering in person.
- Kara
Today was a day that began for me in order and peace. I felt really grounded, and gratitude felt easy and close at hand. I was even able to stop and let it in: I felt grateful for the gratitude, thankful to feel thankful. Those moments feel expansive and it's hard to imagine them ending.
Then I packed the day a little bit too full, other people didn't behave quite like I wanted them to, a few small things piled up, and nothing big really happened to steal my joy, it was simply that gradually my elevated mood devolved into fatigue and irritability.
Is this something you've encountered lately?
Have the moods been shifting quickly in your home?
Here's what I am doing with it: I'm practicing gentleness with myself. Grace. And I'm practicing welcoming my weaknesses without such harsh judgment. I prefer to be the one who keeps it all together. But nobody does that, and nobody should have to. So I am letting in the unpleasant emotions, and letting myself feel them. And I am trying to watch my mood roller coaster with tenderness for my humanity.
And if I am tired, I am not going to push through. I'm going to go toward rest.
I said something to my spiritual director today that I didn't really realize until I said it aloud, and I am now repeating it to help myself believe it: Everything takes more energy. Everything. It's ok to go slower and do less.
In that spirit, here's a beautiful blessing from Jan Richardson:
CONNECTING RITUAL:- Kara
 |
| VanGogh, Noon - Rest from Work |
Today was a day that began for me in order and peace. I felt really grounded, and gratitude felt easy and close at hand. I was even able to stop and let it in: I felt grateful for the gratitude, thankful to feel thankful. Those moments feel expansive and it's hard to imagine them ending.
Then I packed the day a little bit too full, other people didn't behave quite like I wanted them to, a few small things piled up, and nothing big really happened to steal my joy, it was simply that gradually my elevated mood devolved into fatigue and irritability.
Is this something you've encountered lately?
Have the moods been shifting quickly in your home?
Here's what I am doing with it: I'm practicing gentleness with myself. Grace. And I'm practicing welcoming my weaknesses without such harsh judgment. I prefer to be the one who keeps it all together. But nobody does that, and nobody should have to. So I am letting in the unpleasant emotions, and letting myself feel them. And I am trying to watch my mood roller coaster with tenderness for my humanity.
And if I am tired, I am not going to push through. I'm going to go toward rest.
I said something to my spiritual director today that I didn't really realize until I said it aloud, and I am now repeating it to help myself believe it: Everything takes more energy. Everything. It's ok to go slower and do less.
In that spirit, here's a beautiful blessing from Jan Richardson:
Blessing in the Chaos
To all that is chaotic
in you,
let there come silence.
Let there be
a calming
of the clamoring,
a stilling
of the voices that
have laid their claim
on you,
that have made their
home in you,
that go with you
even to the
holy places
but will not
let you rest,
will not let you
hear your life
with wholeness
or feel the grace
that fashioned you.
Let what distracts you
cease.
Let what divides you
cease.
Let there come an end
to what diminishes
and demeans,
and let depart
all that keeps you
in its cage.
Let there be
an opening
into the quiet
that lies beneath
the chaos,
where you find
the peace
you did not think
possible
and see what shimmers
within the storm.
- Jan Richardson
from The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief
This week, we are reading through the Gospel of John. In my house, it is at the dinner table. Maybe for you, it will be when you wake up, or before bed, or over lunch. It can be read in about 20 minutes a day, or by reading three chapters each day. If this is your approach, today, we are reading Chapters 10-12.Perhaps tonight before we go to bed, whatever time that is in each of our homes, we might recite this Psalm together, and so join our hearts:
Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff—
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment