Kind of a mix of different things today - a stunningly beautiful prayer, then sharing some images of the last few days for me as well as an update on the bench and also a quick add-on to the letter in my last post.
So let’s start with the letter. I had one person write me privately asking about any suggestions for during those times and what came to my mind was a sermon I shared a while back that brought insights from Jessica, one of the video yoga instructors on Apple Fitness. She often shares three pointers, especially in balance poses.
Keep your eyes focused on a point that’s not moving
Ground yourself with one of your big toes
The little wobbles keep you there
I think those are three pretty good tips for when we are in difficult times. Keep focused on something that you know to be solid. It might be a person, a religious focus, even maybe a physical object (like holding a rock tightly). Second, how are you literally “grounding” yourself? One practice has a person looking for 5 things they can see, 4 things you can feel, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. All in that moment. And finally, the little wobbles keep you there - balancing requires some measure of wobbling. If we are perfectly stiff, we’re going to fall. Good balance requires a bit of wobbling.
Leading into the reflections on beauty and the bench, I wanted to share a prayer that I read this morning from Cole Arthur Riley’s new book Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human. I am not even sure what words to use to describe the book so far other than...so so so so...just soak it in - the challenges she shares and the encouragements she shares and all in between. Anyway, today’s chapter was on Wonder and she shared this prayer...
For Beauty in the Mundane
God of every beautiful thing, Make us people of wonder. Show us how to hold on to nuance and vision when our souls become addicted to pain, to the unlovely. It is far easier to see the gloom and decay; so often it sings a louder song. Attune our hearts to the good still stirring in our midst, not that we would give ourselves to toxic positivity or neglect the pain of the world, but that we would be people capable of existing in the tension. Grant us habits of sacred pause. Let us marvel not just at the grand or majestic, but beauty’s name etched into every ordinary moment. Let the mundane swell with a mystery that makes us breathe deeper still. And by this, may we be sustained and kept from despair. Amen. (Arthur Riley, Cole. Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human (p. 57). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.)
Amen indeed…
So, onto the beauty (and the bench to follow)…I spent most of the last three days on a beautiful, soul-filling, and wonderful retreat with other church leaders that was led by one of my favorite musicians,
. It was so enriching, centering, and filling. I still have a smile on my face as I am writing this. One of the most beautiful practices we did was writing a song together as a group, guided by Carrie. It ended up being a song about remembering and re-membering - a bit of looking back, staying in the present, and also looking ahead (Rohr’s order, disorder, reorder seemed to be underneath it all). I’ll share the song in a future post as I don’t want to put it out publicly if I’m not supposed to do so (copyright, etc). Suffice to say...the whole time was beautiful. There was a lot of beauty and a whole lot of hope in the people, the setting, and the spirit of our time together. Here are some of my favorite photos from the last few days.











So there’s the beauty of this post...and now the bench...
My first month of this practice is in the books and I ended up doing more than one photo a week and will probably end up continuing that. There ended up being 13 photos of that space. A few of the photos are not from the exact spot because I would have needed to wade through several inches (if not a foot or so) of water to get to the spot. So here are the final two and then a quick video compilation of all thirteen from January. Also, my 13th image had a few extra visitors...


What do you see/hear in this first month of images? (or anything else in this post…)