Scriptural Meditation - Take One

 

 Today was the first day of my offering of Scriptural Meditation to the church that I am serving as a student minister.  The meditation is sculpted around a Lectio Divina style reading of scripture, but like my mandala drawing, there is no real interaction with the people present.  The reflection and consideration of the scripture is supposed to be personal between you and God.  Our reading today was based on Psalm 1, but you can choose any short passage.  Here is the structure of the meditation as I walked participants through it. After we have gathered, welcomed each other, and lit the candle to symbolize welcoming God into our presence, the facilitator can begin.  Be sure to encourage everyone to find a comfortable position.  I personally sit cross legged on the floor, but I arranged some chairs also.

"Listen first to the reading .  Hear the word of our Lord.  After I finish reading it, we will pause for two minutes to reflect silently on what we have heard."  Read scripture of choice. Find a way to time two minutes so that even you are not interrupted.  I found a great Tibetian bowl timer as a free app on my phone. After the two minutes, read the following.

  

"Listen again to this reading.  What phrase or word is call to you.  Grab a hold of the phrase as I read the Psalm again.  Keep the word or phrase in your heart.  After I have finished, hold your word or phrase in your mind.  Let the word or phrase wash over you.  Mull on it.  Contemplate it.  Repeat it within your mind.  We will sit with our individual words or phrases for 5 minutes." Read the scripture again slowly and clearly. After the five minutes, take a deep breath and return.

"I am going to read this passage one more time.  You have heard the words.  You have found a word or phrase that is calling to you.  Now reflect on what God is saying to you.  These verses have been read by many, but the Spirit that is speaking through these words is speaking only to you.  Feel the words as I speak them again.  Feel God within you, moving you.  Hear the message you are meant to hear within these words.  Sit with this feeling for the next 12 minutes.  Let the Holy Spirit guide your thoughts." Read the scripture again.  Time 12 minutes. 

  

"Slowly finish your thoughts.  Bring your mind back to the present.  Let your body feel the ground below you.  Hold on to  your thoughts on this scripture.  While our time to meditate together is ending, you should carry this time, these thoughts, God’s words with you throughout the day.  Let the mediation of God’s words never be far from you."  Remind people that part of a spiritual practice is exactly that "practice".  It may have been very difficult to be still that long or keep focus.  They may not have "felt God" over the ache in their hip.  Encourage them though to continue with this practice multiple times before judging it.  Close together.

"Let’s take three full breaths together and then together, 'Thank God for being with me today.  Amen'"

I hope you will try this practice, if not with a group then within the quite time of your life.   We do a lot of talking to God, rarely are we quiet enough to listen to His response.

Time is Relative - Einstein's Theory of Relativity

Einstein theorized that time is not a constant like we think of it.  There are ways to "adjust" the speed of time.  Most people believe that this theory is important to physicists, astronauts, etc., but that it doesn't really apply to themselves.  When are we going to loop around the sun or surpass the speed of light?  But I think this theory has a lot more relevance than we give it credit for.  For average people, we don't have to worry about "actual" changes in time, but perceived changes in time.  For example,  why when we are in times of extreme stress does time slow down and seconds seem eternal?  Why when we are doing something we enjoy does time speed by? Why is realizing that our perception of time is important?  Because we have one life.  Do we want our life to speed by or would you like to savor it?

How does time speed away? I find that we schedule it away.  Today for example, I am working on Advent and the Christmas Pageant.  How can I enjoy November if I'm already thinking of December?  I have harnessed this over scheduled beast a bit in my life, but somehow he still gets away from me once in a while.  But harnessing him, was a challenge, and it continues to be a challenge to keep him under control.  I find minimizing my schedule to be helpful.  Also, truly being in the moment to be the other secret.  If I am cooking, then I should be fully cooking and not thinking of the ten other things on my mind.  This is certainly a challenge especially for a mother, homeschooler, and community activist, but it is possible.

Today, challenge yourself to slow down.  I don't mean to take smaller steps, but let time slow. 

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."  NIV Matthew 6:34

A Woman's Weekend Alone

Ok,  all you people looking for a description of a wild, sexy weekend of partying based on this title, I suggest that you surf on,  you will find no such article here.  All of you mom's who think that you will never have one minute to yourself ever again, read on.  This weekend was a first in our house.  DH took both of the kids camping and I was left home alone with the the animals (thus the Movies that Make You Cry entry). I had an entire weekend to myself.  Granted Sunday, I walked with 20,000 other people in the Rays of Hope Breast Cancer Walk, but the rest of the weekend was mine.  You are probably thinking that this sounds heavenly.  What you wouldn't do just to be able to go to the bathroom without someone knocking on the door.  Let me tell you, it was ........................................................HORRIBLE! 

Yes, there were enjoyable points.  I watched a couple of chick flicks.  I got a lot of writing done.  I didn't have to fight for the remote or my blankets.  I didn't have to cook and there were practically no dishes.  But there was no laughter, no snuggling, no reason to make dinner, and no kisses goodnight.  I found myself aching for them to come home.  I missed my daughter prattling on and my son's bear hugs.  I wandered around the house wondering what I am ever going to do when they grow a little older and move out.  I felt serious empathy for my father who lives alone now and could not imagine enduring this boredom day in and day out for weeks, months, years.

So, I advise all you mothers who think you will never have another solitary uninterupted thought to appreciate it.  It will not be long until your little ones are out of the house, until their social calendars are busier than yours, until not only do you have a moment to breathe but seriously unending silence.  On those days, you'll miss the knocks, the laughter, and even the dishes.

I'm so glad that today they are home!

Generational Memories

Is there a place in your life that has been a constant for generation after generation?

In our family, it is Hawks Nest Beach in Old Lyme, CT. The beach has stretches from my daughter, through me, to my mother, past her mother to my great grandparents. Prior to 1938, our family had a cottage at this beach, but the ’38 hurricane took the cottage and flung it into the swamp. In fact, my great-uncle contracted yellow fever after trying to collect the items that survived the blow. My grandmother told of the dresser drawers that while they were pulled out of the dresser and flung into the swamp, the drawers were still packed full of clothes just like you had opened them on a normal day. Unfortunately, my great-uncle died from his illness and in an act of cowardice, his father actually committed suicide. He was frustrated that his son was dying and that he did not have insurance on the cottage, but I say it was cowardice because he actually committed suicide before his son died (the same day, but prior to his death) and left two other children and his wife to suffer through all loss themselves.

Anyway on a more positive note, my mother remembers hiding under the cottage stairs to watch her older cousin and her boyfriend as they sat at the beach. When she and her brother were caught, the cousin would give them a nickel to go get ice cream and leave them alone. My mother continued the tradition and rented cottages for us to stay at. My husband and I rented for a few years with our kids and while we don’t anymore, other family members do. So last weekend, we went back to the cottage for a good old fashioned family get together.

DD even got to go jet skiing. She is a girl of no fear and kept asking her cousin to go faster.

There is a part of me that hopes that this piece of family history will continue to climb down many more generations.

Mom Time in the Morning

Honestly, I am not a morning person, but on those rare mornings that I am up early, like this morning. I find a special bit of peace and tranquility. This morning, the dog had to go out and DH was already running late, so I got doggy duty (that wasn’t meant as a pun, but . . .). When I came back in it seemed silly to try to go back to bead, so I crushed some coffee beans, got my book, and spent some me time.

I never understood the idea of me time until I lost it when the kids were very young. It seemed that I was always spending my time for everyone else and never had a moment to think my own thoughts or follow my own interests. I finally started to enforced bedtimes that allowed me time to have after they went to bed. However, I often would be too tired to do anything. I often read of mothers who get their time before their kids get up, but not only don’t I usually like morning but, also in our home, mornings were almost impossible to glean as DD rises with the sun. I would have to get up at 4 in the morning or earlier. As she enters her teen years though, mornings are becoming more of a possibility. I don’t have to worry about DS, who would sleep until noon if he could.

There is something special about that time when all in the house is quiet. The outside world is asleep and the light is altered either the dim morning sunrise or the calming dark warmed by a single light. Right now the light is amplified and altered by the golden reflection of the leaves. I’m not sure why the light makes such a difference, but there is a comfortable warmth that fills me.

I’m not going to starting setting my alarm clock early, but I do appreciate special morning times when they come unexpectedly.

How do you glean me time? Do you think that me time is important?

The Beach

A perfect silence amidst the crashing roar and tumble of the waves. A breeze and a clouded umbrella, a perfect day at the beach for me. The seagulls swoop. The sandpipers trot. The cormorant float. To me, a heaven on earth. A peace and a comfort fill me. Restored as if back home again.

I once thought everyone felt this way until I met my husband who dreds water like the wicked witch of the west, who I don’t think put on a pair of shorts until our fifth year of marriage (mind you we rented a beach cottage every summer), and who would be happy to never touch or see an ocean in his life. To me this is incomprehensible.

At funerals we say “dust to dust” but for me it should be “from water, to water” as they sprinkle me among the waves.

My New Life

As the family is strewn across the state in summer camp, I am left home alone during day for the first time since my daughter, who is now 13, was born. It has been a very exciting week filled with blogging, walking the dog, cleaning the house, and I even let myself get out and watch a movie I been interested in seeing since I read the book (The Mists of Avalon). It has been such a change since I stopped working in April. And this week even more so since I did not even have the kids at home. Tuesday morning I spent a very exciting time grocery shopping – Wooohooo! I dropped my daughter off at the bus, completed payroll at church, went to Wal-mart to pick up a Boost Mobile card (since my daughter has been using my emergency only cell phone for all sorts of conversations with me), and then headed over to BJ’s, where I found out that they don’t open until 9:00am. Not wanting to waist the gold I put in the gas tank of my car and since no one was waiting for me at home except the dogs, I opened the windows all the way and pulled out a book to read for the 45 minute wait until the store opened. It was then that I got a glance of my old self. At about 10 of 9:00, a woman drove up to the store. She parked her car, got her carriage, and went to the front door. When she reached the locked door, she became upset. As she stormed away, she saw me sitting in the car. “Mame, Do you know when the store opens?”

“The sign says 10 am. That is why I am just sitting here reading.”

“Humf!” She stormed toward her car. She got in and sped away.

I thought this was me a year ago. Hurry, hurry, rush, rush – angry at things that were beyond my control. Frustrated by our schedule. Now here I was reading a book, relaxed. What a difference a year can make.