Good to Remember

Devotion for Being Apart -
July 1

This summer, I will share new devotions from time to time,
and invite you to browse through devotions that have been posted at this blog.

Here are a couple of things floating around the internet that have been helpful to me this week.  The first is just a gentle reminder.



This second one was interesting. When I began reading the lists of "how deficiency affects you", my daughter and I laughed so hard we cried.  We're now asking each other bizarre things like, "How's your serotonin?" and telling each other to take a cold shower or go for a walk.



These two reminders have joined our family's growing "pandemic survival fridge collection," which includes such classics as:





and of course,



These help us stay connected to our bodies, and pay attention to our minds and hearts.  They help us remember this is a really unusual time, and we may be reacting even when we think we are not.
Beloveds, this is our first pandemic. And not only that, but, (as someone put it so beautifully to me yesterday) "We are in a reckoning or a recalibration and it goes beyond a pandemic."  This is all of our first time through all of this.  Grace to you. Grace to those around you. Grace to us all.

What reminders are helping you stay grounded?  What helps you take a deep breath? How are you remembering that we belong to God? How are you remembering the we belong to each other?

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CONNECTING RITUAL:

Perhaps this morning, whatever time that is in each of our homes, we can pray in this way, and so join our souls with each other and the people of the whole earth:

Set a timer for 5 minutes. Pause, sit still, and breathe.  End with this prayer: 

In the busyness of this day
grant me a stillness of seeing, O God,
In the conflicting voices of my heart
grant me a calmness of hearing.
Let my seeing and hearing
my words and my actions
be rooted in silent certainty of your presence.
Let my passions for life
and the longings for justice that stir within me
be grounded in the experience of your stillness.
Let my life be rooted in the ground of your peace, O God,
let me be rooted in the depths of your peace.
Amen.

(From Celtic Benediction, by J. Philip Newell)