What do you see?

I invite you to pause for a moment and take some time for some contemplative play.

Start by letting this image fill your mind as you focus on your breath and letting yourself slow down into this time and this space.  Letting your breath and this picture be all that you attend to right now.

What does this look like to you?  How does that reflect what you are in need of today? What your soul is in need of today?

Consider these questions also:

What do you see?
What colors stand out to you? Why?
What does your imagination do with this picture?
What words come to mind?
What favorite quotes from your favorite spiritual literature come to mind?


I invite you to join in conversation with me in the comments below what has come of your contemplative play time today.

Worn Out

As I walked through my week I kept hearing from people just how busy fall seems to be and that so many of us seem to already be struggling to find the energy to keep going. If you are like me and need time alone and away from people to recharge, this season of busy can be draining not only physically but emotionally and spiritually as well. So for all of us who seem to have schedules that are overburdened with activities and things demanding our time this poem's for you.  Take a breath, know you are not alone and that together with God we will find our way to a slower pace again.

WORN OUT

Dried up,
Barren,
Nothing left,
is how I feel.

The rat race pace of the week
greedily,
ravenously
consuming what ever energy I have left.

I go through the motions of my
quiet devotion time.
But it is not the same
as the chaos
pounds my soul.

I crave time away from
ALL of humanity.
Blessed quiet and aloneness.
Just me and you God.

But the schedule screams for attention.
Quiet and aloneness seem an
Eternity away.

And still I know you are here
in the middle of my
cranky,
exhausted chaos.
You are here loving me
even as I show the worst side
of myself.

You call to me,
telling me to lean closer.
Reminding me that you
will give me strength
to make it to the end of this chaos.

You remind me of the promise
that you will provide.
That the blessed quiet and aloneness
that feeds me
will be there.

Thanks be to YOU God.
AMEN.

Promise after the Storm

Wind blows,
Rain falls,
Bringing with it the storms.

The storm is loud,
wild,
fearsome and scary.

But I do not seek to
be focused on the storm.

Instead I look towards
the promise of hope
that comes in the rainbow.

I wait for the
fresh, washed clean scent
that comes when the storm clears.

I know that after the storm
is the promise of renewal.

For even the earth
can not live with out water
to nourish it.

Thus I can not live
with out Your Holy Breath
and life giving water.

Grow Where You Are

I invite you to pause for a moment and take some time for some contemplative play.

Start by letting this image fill your mind as you focus on your breath and letting yourself slow down into this time and this space.  Letting your breath and this picture be all that you attend to right now.

This vine uses what ever was handy to climb up and grow.  How might you climb and grow where you are right now?

Consider these questions also:

What do you see?
What colors stand out to you? Why?
What does your imagination do with this picture?
What words come to mind?
What favorite quotes from your favorite spiritual literature come to mind?


I invite you to join in conversation with me in the comments below what has come of your contemplative play time today.

Lost and Found

Monday I took my daughter to see the movie "Christopher Robin." It is an excellent movie, I recommend you see it. As I was watching the movie, I realized that this is a movie for adults.  Not because of content inappropriate for young eyes and ears, but because as busy, super focused adults we need the message Christopher Robin learns. I have spent the last couple of days thinking about how I might begin to remember for myself who I was as a child. I have been contemplating what does it really mean to play, not just the way I may play as an adult, but child like, innocent, creative play.  You know the kind that you can in no way take yourself too seriously to engage in. Well, I think I shall just stop the reflective questions right here, because I do not want to ruin the movie for you.  Instead I will leave you with the words of this poem inspired by the message I took from the movie.




Lost and Found
Somewhere along the way
I lost myself.

I let the busy of life,
the pressure to succeed,
the expectations of others
take over.

In doing so I forgot the important things:
     Play
     Silence
     Compassion
     Connection
     Being true to myself.

Memories of a self long forgotten
tapped me on the shoulder,
saying
Remember us?
Remember you?

And in the moment
my true self is once again
remembered.

I remembered the happiness
that is found in the
honoring of who you truly are.

And I stopped to
    Re-imagine myself
    Let go of that which is not me.

I took a deep breath
Stepped onto a new path
to begin to find myself again.

This time moving into the
life journey
more fully me
than I have ever been before.