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.
by Christine Sine
I wrote this prayer a couple of days ago, but when I read it this morning my initial thought was Why do I feel I need to welcome the ever-present, omnipotent God into the day? If I really believe God is present in every moment and every place surely it is more a matter of God welcoming me into the day. Then I realized how often I ignore or fail to acknowledge the ever-present One in my thoughts and words and deeds. I do indeed need to welcome God into my day because God stands at the door and knocks but will not enter until I open myself to the divine presence in that moment and that place.
So often we shut God out of our pains because they are hard for us to confront and we are afraid of what God might say to us in the midst of them. We fail to notice the beauty because our eyes are focused on our screens. And we fail to relish the joys of the day because we are so consumed with the next task we want to accomplish that we don’t take time for joy.
It is not so much that we shut God out of the day, but that we shut God out of our experience of it. In welcoming God into the day we are reminding ourselves that God is indeed present in every experience and emotion that fills our day. We are saying God you are here; we don’t want to shut you out; we welcome you.
At the moment The Gift of Wonder is bringing me great joy as are the delightful arrivals of my adopted grandchildren May and Lucy into my life. There is also pain that I need to acknowledge and invite God into – my personal pain of continuing facial pain and discomfort, but also the ongoing ache of watching friends struggle with cancer and the frailties of old age. Then there is the societal pain that seems to confront me at every turn – racial injustice, migrants at the border, climate crisis, gender abuse. So many places that I need to acknowledge in my daily experiences and invite God into. Only then can I receive God’s wisdom, counsel comfort and love.
I find increasingly that in our fast paced life, I need to pause frequently and commit my experiences and my emotions to God. Only as I face the reality of who I am and what is going on in our world can I really enjoy the intimacy of a God who cares for me and welcomes me into every aspect of my day.
Written by and photos and art work by Corrine Lund —
When it was time for me to consider college, my farmer father strongly encouraged me to do what he was not able to do…work in the medical field. The first semester was painful. No soul-filling in biology for this lady! No passion in science labs! Second semester finally arrived. An elective! I chose a drawing class in the art department. I had never even visited an art gallery before this. One class. Then another. No more biology. My journey had taken a significant turn in the road and my heart and soul were filled!
How did I ever manage to find myself on such a path!? Could that be the guidance of the Holy Spirit? Really? Is that how it works? I drew and painted and created in all manners of form and technique.
How does one take a step off the familiar (not necessarily comfortable) path, brave enough to begin seeing the world and all the possibilities with different eyes? Seeing life differently. This was a journey that was beginning to fill my heart and soul. And then…
In 1996 I was diagnosed with cancer. It was the real thing…surgery, chemotherapy and radiation…and then slowly, recovery. Ask me if I was seeing life a bit differently now! I do not think God puts frightening challenges on our path just to make us stronger and wiser. I believe that God ‘helps and guides’ us through these challenges so that we are able to find the strength to walk the path of this new journey. God is not stealing away my joy to prove a point. But…interestingly, somehow the challenge I was facing and my creativity were coming together. Even with my tired body, I was growing stronger within. Could something that so filled my soul guide me through this life challenge?
I began to manage the fear, learning about and planning for the experience ahead. The fear began to settle down so that I could explore just what this challenge meant in my life. As an art educator, I had always shared with my students that their creativity was always available to them as they faced the unexpected in life. It was not just about drawing and painting. It was about how to express, deal with, explore, and even face significant life issues. Art was also about healing and I was about to experience this for myself. I began to see cancer through different eyes – creative eyes.
Containers for My Feelings
I created unique baskets that represented ‘containers’ for all the feelings I had, always using color to keep up my spirits. God probably smiled as I joined these two experiences for my new journey. When a day was difficult, I would create. I created from fabric and wrote in journals, made collages and worked on paintings. Each time I faced a new fear I would fall back on words or images or just color to deal with what was churning inside of me. Whatever spoke to my heart and soul! I even began to reach out to share with other cancer patients who were learning to manage their own fear, anger and overwhelming confusion. I encouraged others to become involved in creative adventures they might never have considered…gardening, cooking, photography – whatever their physical situation could manage and enjoy.
What a gift the Holy Spirit had put into my heart those many years ago. By now, I knew it was not my own doing that lead me to that unfamiliar elective in the Art department. In the months that followed I put all my thoughts, prayers, meditations, creative ideas into a book that was published called, God Blessed Them for the Journey. That was my celebration finale.
Being focused, feeling at peace, letting go of fear meant looking at life differently after receiving that diagnosis of cancer. Continuing to function in a reasonably normal fashion meant looking at life differently…very differently. Looking at life differently in the midst of life’s challenges can, indeed be a challenge in and of itself. You might have to learn to see life a bit differently but…do you know what? You aren’t traveling alone. I have paraphrased the words of Jesus just a bit:
“You are never traveling alone. If you are willing, you can follow me. I am the Way. When you open yourself to seeking life in a different way, seeing through my eyes, following my path…do you know what… I am going to be there with you!”
So many stages of life we all experience, each one different from the other. Excitement and challenges, feeling blessed and experiencing fears. We learn through each passage, each turn on the path
(Hmmm, the Holy Spirit had a pretty wise plan all those many years ago!) AND I’M STILL DANCING!
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