Practices
Embracing our humanness
“Morning is an important time of day, because how you spend your morning can often tell you what kind of day you are going to have.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Blank Book
It’s early Sunday morning. . .I usually try and write this earlier, so I have a few days to let it all settle. That’s the ideal. But, sometimes, the dream doesn’t happen.
This weekend I spent all day Friday and Saturday doing Module 2 of Spiritual Director Training. It’s a delightful time and exhausting in equal measure.
I’m finding that one of the things I enjoy the most is learning about new spiritual practices. Or just exercises that help us see and embrace our humanness. They are time-tested (ancient in many cases) tools that help us see the small things in our lives that bring joy or pain and help us go deeper in personal reflection and growth.
In this module, we focused on tools for self-reflection. It’s so easy to be so busy managing and responding to the people and places in our lives that we don’t take time to be. The Spiritual Location Exercise is a tool of Ignatian Spirituality (a collection of practices and prayers from St. Ignatian, developed in the 15th and 16th centuries.) This exercise was new to me but a helpful tool.
The Spiritual Location Exercise is six questions. It takes a little bit of time (not more than 15 minutes), paper, and pen. The invitation with this practice is to notice the emotions, questions, and feelings we are constantly experiencing. We notice and write down quick lists. The pen and paper seem to be an essential element in this exercise. Our lives are lived so much in our head, pausing to answer the questions and letting the answers flow through our fingers and become words in black and white is surprisingly helpful. The six questions move from general to specific. They seem simple but can help us see more than we might realize. The six questions that comprise this exercise are:
What are some facts about your life? (I’m a wife, I am a mother, I do this job…)
What has been pre-occupying your mind recently? (This is such a remarkable question-the fact is we all have thoughts, worries, fears that are pre-occupying our minds, it’s nice to make a list.)
What have been your predominant emotions of late? (What emotional states have you noticed?)
Where have I been noticing my thoughts and feelings showing up in my body? (Another great question- that tight right shoulder or upset stomach, it’s good to see these things as a pattern.)
What questions have I been asking/holding?
In your times of quiet, what longings of your heart have been surfacing?
Once you have this list, the final step is to read through your lists.
Is the Holy Spirit/God/Divine running a highlighter over something that you need to pay attention to? Where is your attention drawn as you look at your lists? What stands out to you as you read the lists?
It’s the simple questions and practices that draw us deeper into our own lives. These questions are simple and complex. They speak to the reality of being human and invite us to pause and reflect. There is always so much power in the pause. In the pause, we stop reacting and can take in more information. We all have questions running through our minds, emotions, and thoughts, taking up unwanted space in our heads. It’s helpful to stop and write them down.
I found this exercise so helpful. I hope you’ll take a few Sunday Evening Moments to let these questions help you find your spiritual (or just human) location. In our training, we used this practice as preparation for a short Spiritual Direction session. It helped us see where we were asking questions or holding onto emotions that we could discuss with someone and slow down to hear God’s invitation and hope.
Take 15 minutes this week to try the Spiritual Location Exercise. Make sure you use paper and pen. Jotting down your answers in a bullet list form is helpful. (I made a download for you.) Download The Spiritual Location Exercise here.
Photo by Bookblock on Unsplash
ideas.poems.quotes.songs that sparkled for me this week.
(I try and pay attention to words or phrases that stand out to me in my reading and listening. There is a spiritual practice called Florliledgium that is collecting short, interesting pieces {words that “sparkle” up} and putting them together. This is kind of like that. Watching for things that sparkle. Gathering them and seeing how they work together and what message, mantra, or new idea might arise.)
A Practice:
Read slowly.
Notice if a word or phrase stands out to you.
How do the words make you feel?
Is there an invitation?
Don’t Hesitate
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibilities left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.
-Mary Oliver
A soul flare is what happens when someone shines (his or her) light no matter what it is. In a song, a smile, or a well-made soup; they send out a flare of light that inspires others to shine their own. Soul flares make this world better.
-Annie O’Shaughnessy
The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you, the better you hear what is sounding outside of you.
-Dag Hammarskjold
Photo by Ray Hennessy on Unsplash
A Smaller & Deeper Blessing
May you have eyes to see the small delights.
Ears to hear the deeper call.
May you find ease in the right yes and peace in no.
Through the highs and lows of this week, may you know you don’t walk alone.
Photo by guy stevens on Unsplash
Typos and misplaced commas prove my humanity.