Greetings from one of my thinplaces, beautiful Lake Michigan. I’m on a short holiday at the Lake, where cell coverage is spotty and you have to drive into town for wifi…good things for rest, but not so great for getting posts done in a timely fashion. So here’s a belated post that I’m using to remind myself of the gift of a new start, a new calendar page, is a gift! even if the month ahead looks super busy. It’s still possible to take time out to notice the beauty around us and to make the time now to rest and restore our souls. So, August! We Welcome You!
A New Month! Fresh Start! New Beginnings! What does your August look like? 
Are you excited about the possibilities or are you “pre-dreading” all the things you “have to do”? Sadly, too often I pre dread the things ahead rather than just being present to the day at hand.
What if we all take a deep breath and breathe in the gift of a new day & a new month?!
What if we embrace my friend Scott Erickson’s idea of
“I GET TO…” ?!
What are the things you GET TO do this month?
How can you embrace this month as a gift of days filled with opportunities of “GET TOs “?
What do you need to stop and grieve or give up, that is bringing you pain or shame? Actually take the time to consider these things. Maybe find a new journal to start the new month.
What do you need to stop, and take time to celebrate be grateful for in you life?
Are there things you’ve been putting off or procrastinating on that you can take the first baby step toward finishing this month?
Are there relationships you’d like to deepen or ones you’d like to heal? Make a phone call and plan a coffee date to stay in touch.
Take time this weekend, as the new month begins to Say YES to the new month! Make a list of anything that is blocking your way to having a great month. Give these things to God and let God have them.
Ask God to open you eyes to notice all the good things and all the opportunities that are ahead of you that you “GET TO..” this month! Keep a list of them!
Ask God to help you experience the gift of wonder in each new day! Check out Christine’s Book The Gift of Wonder if you haven’t already!
Ask God to help you receive the gifts, even the hard frustrating ones. Take time each day to open your hands to remind you to receive them.
Ask God to help you notice the beauty around you. You might take a photo of that beauty when you notice it!
Ask Jesus to help you truly know that you are loved and cherished by the Creator of all things each day this month! This is harder for us to believe sometimes. I have a heart cut out in my purse with the words “YOU ARE LOVED” on it, to remind me that God loves me today, and everyday, just as I am. What will help you remember that you are loved?
I pray that we will truly receive the gift of this new month and just as the waves wash up on the beach each day, we to will be washed in God’s great love for us!
Happy August! 
©lillylewin and freereangeworship.com
by Christine Sine
In The Gift of Wonder, I talk about how kids are constantly questioning. They nag at us until they get an answer, sometimes lots of answers. Often I feel that the question is more important than the answer. What they are needing is a listening ear and the permission to stretch their enquiring minds beyond the boundaries that have been set for them. Sometimes I thing that we as adults need the same kind of permission. We should be constantly asking questions, pushing towards new horizons of insight and of understanding.
The photo above made me think of how all of us get stranded at times on rocks that we are afraid to leave. We don’t want to get our feet wet by asking uncomfortable questions. And yet to grow our faith we need.
So with that said here is another questioning poem that has come out of my contemplation in the last few days.
Why do we look without seeing,
Listen with hearing,
Touch without feeling,
Too busy to notice
what God has created
all around?
It’s easy to stagnate
and lose our way
when things go wrong.
To sit in frozen fear
retreat and don’t advance
when risk and uncertainty
engulf me.
My heart cries out
Why now? What next?
I can’t, I won’t.
I don’t want to.
Until I lift my eyes
towards the light
and see the loving face
of God,
writhed in smilies and laughter,
gently calling,
beckoning with joy.
ask whatever you will.
Move forward,
let your spirit fly.
To live is risk.
by Christine Sine
I am getting ready for a busy travel season. On Friday Tom and I head to Canada for a week. In September I go to Cinncinati, October to Chicago and November we will be in Australia. One of the things I find is that moving around as much as this can leave me feeling disconnected from God and spiritually dry so I always like to put together a travel kit to help me focus and enrich myself during my journeys. This year I decided to be a little more intentional about it.
Old Scottish shortbread tin
I looked on line and found all kinds of prayer tins that are designed for on the go spirituality but to be honest most of them are just too small for me and I really wanted to create something that reflected who I am. So I went scavenging through my growing collection of tins and found this old Scottish shortbread tin that had belonged to my aunt. It is a perfect size for me. Room for a few prayers, a couple of photos, a few colored pens, a cross, an “on the go” labyrinth, a small icon, and even a little cloth that I can spread out in my room to anchor me in a way that makes the place I am visiting feel like home.
I like to use the card sets that I have created over the years (my favourite is still this Celtic set) which also give me a sense of continuity and stability but choose your favorites, or print out a couple of your favourite psalms. One important item that does not fit in my tin is my journal – with some lined pages and some blank for creative projects, but this is well worth the extra space it takes.
These kinds of resources can really help us find stability and peace in the midst of busyness and stress.
On the Go Devotional
One of my other travel rhythms after booking in for my flight and passing through security is to buy myself a cup of coffee and then finding a relaxing place to sit and center myself for the trip. I used to travel with a book of morning and evening prayers, my favorite being David Adam’s The Rhythm of Life: Celtic Daily Prayers
However these days there are so many “On the go” prayer options that I tend to use these instead. My favorites are:
Sacred Space – Daily Prayer with the Irish Jesuits
Pray as You Go – also from the Jesuits. I love this daily prayer for your phone.
Then on the way home I put my journal in my hand luggage and spend the first part of the flight reflecting on my trip and what I have learned. It is a wonderful way to bring my time to closure as I commit it and all that has happened to God.
Design Your Own Travel Kit
You may not be doing as much travel over the next few months as I am but all of us are on the move and I find that a kit like this is helpful even for day trips, so here are some suggestions as you put your own kit together.
- What small object makes a space sacred for you?
- What helps you center yourself on the presence of God?
- What helps you focus?
- What stirs your imagination and provides creative energy for your day?
- What relieves your stress and helps you unwind at the end of the day?
What other suggestions do you have to help us all negotiate the constant movement of our society?
by Christine Sine
A few days ago a good friend encouraged me to revisit John O’Donahue’s book To Bless the Space Between Us. It is one of my favourite books so it wasn’t hard to pull it out again. Only this time she suggested that I start with the last section To Retrieve the Lost Art of Blessing because as she reminded me, we have lost the art of blessing, not just as a perfunctory grace before a meal but the art of blessing every aspect of the day and of what we do. Today the phrase Each new day is a path of wonder, caught my attention and I have been thinking about the journey that each day takes us on. No day stands still; each one moves through different territory, awakening new beginnings Donahue reminds us.
Why is it so rare for us to think about the day in this way? Why do we forget to bless the moments of the day and recognize the wonder of God’s presence in them. My pondering today led to this poem which I wanted to share with you:
Have we lost the words of wonder
to speak of God’s enduring love
To convey the warm embrace
that holds us through the nights
of joy and sorrow.
To share the touch that reaches out across the universe
To says I care.
Have we lost the images
That shimmer with God’s glory
And dance across our minds
With bright and shining clarity
To fill our souls with beauty.
Have we lost the silence
That holds the peace
Of resting in this moment
Of God’s created wonder.
Unique in its beauty
Alone in its glory
Yet bound to the whole world.
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by Christine Sine
A couple of months ago I was asked to contribute a post on writing rituals to the IVPress blog. As I reread what I wrote, I realized that these suggestions are not just for writers. All of us need to take the very intentional step of committing our day and our tasks to God. So here is what I wrote (with a few embellishments):
I am not the world’s most disciplined writer but certain practices I employed while writing The Gift of Wonder helped keep me focused.
1,. Decluttering my desk at the beginning of a project reduces distraction and keeps my eyes from wandering. In some ways the clutter on my desk acts as a barometer. Clutter means I am under stress, an orderly uncluttered desk means I am relaxed and more easily able to get into the creative groove that is my most productive place.
What would be your equivalent of decluttering your desk that helps you reduce stress and focus on the task ahead?
2. Beginning each writing session with a centering ritual like a breath prayer that acknowledges my creative energy comes from God. So important to remind ourselves at the beginning of each project we undertake that our inspiration and and creativity come from God. A simple prayer like this might help us focus too:
Creator God I sit in stillness,
Inviting your creative energy into my day.
May my thoughts and my words
Be grounded in your love,
Be inspired by your Spirit,
Be guided by your hand.
Work in me.
Speak through me.
Create through me your desires.
What practice helps you center yourself on God and acknowledge God’s creative energy as the source of all you do?
3. Keeping my finger labyrinth handy for when writer’s block hits or a challenging question confronts me. Believe it or not walking a labyrinth with our non dominant hand stirs creativity and often brings solutions by the time we walk in and out along the path. So as most of us don’t have a full sized labyrinth handy, a finger labyrinth is a good alternative.
What practice is most helpful for you in overcoming the obstacles that stop you getting a task completed?
4. Pause frequently to breathe deeply. My Fitbit reminds me each hour to walk. Combining those 250 steps with a few deep breaths and a prayer that reminds me of God’s guidance in what I am doing is invaluable. As most of you know I have always been a fan of breath prayers. You can find quite a collection of breath prayers on this resource page.
What is one practice that helps you stay on task throughout the day?
If I could go back to my 20 something self and to my 30 something self, I would tell her that she needs to stop with the over busyness and packed agenda and the intense desire to perform, and instead, take the time to be still and get outside in nature and start learning to practice silence and solitude. We can not keep pouring out our cups if they are empty! Solitude and Silence restore our souls and then we have the space to fill up our cups and we will be able to hear from God again.
So in the midst of this weekend, make the time to be alone. Give yourself permission to just BE. Give yourself permission to rest, breathe, and restore.
Allow the time to stop the ‘to do list’ and be still. Make the time to get outside, take a walk, breathe! Saturate your soul with silence and solitude, even if it’s just 15 minutes! or even start with 5!
Now look at your calendar and plan a half day or even a whole day to be quiet with God sometime in August! What would it take for you to actually plan a mini retreat for yourself this August?
Talk to God about this. What are your fears? What are your hesitations? What are the excuse you make?
I find i need to make silence& solitude an appointment or schedule silence as a meeting on my calendar so it will actually happen! and in the midst of our crazy world we need silence and solitude more than ever! Regardless of our age!
WE ALL NEED MORE REST AND MORE SILENCE THAN WE THINK WE DO!
And what would our world look like, if we started teaching our kids to practice silence and solitude before they reached the “burn out” stage of life?
What if we teach them how to experience God in nature, to take time to be still without devices or media? to take a chair or blanket outside and look at the clouds or the stars? Teaching them how to listen to the still small voice of God? and help kids of all ages see that quiet is a good thing, not a scary one!
“God is a friend of Silence. See how nature–trees, flowers, grass–grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence…We need silence to be able to touch souls.” Mother Teresa
That’s my prayer today…for all of us to make time to saturate our souls with silence, solitude,
and the beauty of God.
Make an appointment to be still. Mark your calendar and take a meeting with yourself and God outside, or somewhere quiet and just be still.
Saturate yourself with silence and allow Jesus to restore your soul! Remember too that #RESTisHoly
“Solitude–when you get saturated with silence and landscape, then you need an interior work, psalms, scripture, meditation But first saturation. How much of this is simply restoration of one’s normal human balance?” Thomas Merton.
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
I have just visited a friend in Texas who has recently purchased a new house. Before I left she asked me to do a house blessing for her. It is something that I love to do when someone moves or renovates their house. It is even a great idea for when you do a spring or other season cleaning of the house so I thought that I would repost this Celtic blessing I adapted from one in The Celtic Daily Prayer several years ago.
The first time I attended a house blessing we went throughout the entire house sprinkling each room with water and offering a special prayer of blessing for the room. We even blessed the bathroom!
We did the same when we renovated our house a couple of years ago and part of what I loved was that I gathered pieces of left over tile and asked people to write a word of blessing on them and add them to a bowl of blessings that still sits in our guest room.
So if you are moving or just renovating your house consider getting some friends together and doing a house blessing. Think of a creative way that you can provide a remembrance of your blessing for the future.
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