by Christine Sine
It’s time to get together our summer reading list, or if you live in the Southern Hemisphere your winter list. Maybe not quite as pretentious as Bill Gates’ list but to be honest I found his to be a little overwhelming and from my perspective much too heavy for the relaxing ahead.
Summer and winter are meant to be slow paced relaxing seasons when the work is done and we sit back and enjoy the beauty of life. Summer I see myself relaxing in the garden, getting away with friends and inhaling the fragrance of life. If you are heading into winter imagine sitting by the fire with a good book and a cup of coffee or a glass of wine generating warm cosy feelings for the season.
Catching up on a little rest and contemplation, having some fun and generally letting go of work and anxiety is a great place to focus as we get our reading list together.
Summer is also a time to get out and explore and as you know I am a keen advocate for walking and pilgrimage so I have included a couple of books that are great for this type of activity.
And a heads up – this is my reading list not yours (though I hope you will get inspiration from it.) Think seriously about what you want to read this summer – for relaxing, to guide you on a journey of pilgrimage and to unleash your inner child and bring a smile to your face for the days ahead.
If you haven’t got hold of a copy of The Gift of Wonder yet you might want to do so – someone told me it is a good book to read barefoot, sitting in the grass.
Focus on Exploration and Pilgrimage
Robert Macfarlane: Landmarks has been my constant companion over the last couple of weeks and I am still relishing the rich imagery of the language and the wonderful creativity in its pages. It is encouraging me to look at the world through new lenses yet again. His book The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot, is the next on my list of “must reads and as it begins with a midwinter walk, I know that it is a good book for any season.
Sheridan Voysey: The Making of Us. In this book Sheridan invites us to join him as he walks along England’s shores from the Holy Island of Lindisfarne to Durham. But it is far more than that. As Sheridan expresses it: Through that pilgrimage and the reflection that followed, I landed on some important conclusions: that when life as we know it ends, new adventures can begin; that the loss of an identity can help us discover who we really are and that the trials of life can help release our best gifts to the world.” This insightful book is worth a good in depth read.
Carol Berry: Learning from Henri Nouwen and Vincent Van Gogh: A Portrait of the Contemplative Life. This book is far more about Vincent Van Gogh and Carol Berry than it is about Henri Nouwen but I found the snippets gleaned from taking a class with Henri Nouwen to be very interesting. Her unpacking of Vincent Van Gogh’s story is extremely insightful. I wish I had read this before visiting the Vincent Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. It would be a great book to take with you if you are heading off to Europe for a summer vacation.
Add a couple of old favorites
As usual my summer reading will include a couple of old favorites that I intend to reread. These are books that have richly shaped my life and continue to do so as I move forward on my journey.
John O’Donohue: Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, and To Bless the Space Between Us are 2 of my absolute favorites. They were great resources when I was working on The Gift of Wonder, and I find that I want to return to them over and over.
Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu: The Book of Joy. This is an amazing book with stories about the lives of two incredibly inspiring men as well as insights into life and faith is worth reading and rereading.
Add some poetry to your list:
I have 2 poetry books sitting on my shelf that I am really looking forward to getting into when my pace slows and I feeling in the relaxed and contemplative place I need for such reading –
Christine Valters Paintner’s Dreaming of Stones and Jenneth Graser’s The Present Moment of Happiness.
Don’t forget the Children’s books.
This year I am revisiting my favorite children’s book All the Proud Tribesmen a delightful story set in the South Pacific Islands that I wa given many years ago. It has been reread numerous times and never fails to delight me.
So what would you like to put on your reading list or add to mine for the coming season?
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By Corrine Lund —
Ideas often pop up unexpectedly for an artist. Experimenting with a color that just doesn’t work might lead to an unsuccessful painting but suddenly – a ‘light bulb’ moment occurs and wonder of wonders…a brilliant new thought comes to life. Unexpected accidents have the potential to become quite awesome.
How do ideas come to be planted in one’s mind? By magic? I doubt that but sometimes, almost from nowhere a creative idea begins to rustle around, stirring up possibilities – slowly, gradually becoming ‘something’. Maybe it was the colors on a piece of clothing that began the process, or maybe the words to a familiar song or even a memory. The idea germinates and grows. What was nothing has become something!
Ah, the wonder of a creative moment. I am in awe as to how one’s mind works. Countless thoughts, memories, ideas in such a small space…awesome! The wonder of the human mind!
When I begin to think creatively, begin to work on a specific project, I wonder at God’s creative plan as it might have grown from a ‘light bulb’ moment. Colors blended together. Maybe some sky blue spilled across some sunshine yellow and God exclaimed. “Awesome! I’ll call it ‘green’. It’s just what I need for my next job!” Pieces of texture were added to make it just a bit more interesting. I become totally involved in the awesome concept of how color works…which I don’t really understand. Just the right color can appear simply by experimenting or maybe it was a spilled cup of paint that ran just where is wasn’t supposed to go. God might have thought, “A color for spring, another for the sky and maybe something for autumn!”
THE WONDER OF IT ALL.
Genesis 1: 1 – 2 (Amplified Bible) says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth
(from nothing)
The earth was formless and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
(It was a waste of emptiness)
The spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
(How awesome is that thought! )
This place we call home was a formless void, a place of emptiness, a pot of boiling color. And then – nothing became something. Maybe it was the Spirit who got the show on the road. Some awesome possibilities began to develop from that slow, purposeful hovering.
Time passed. The earth bubbled and boiled. The formless began to form.
Do you know how something without form might look in the dark sky?
Do you know how the formlessness could slowly, over billions of years, come to be storm clouds and sunsets and thistles in the desert?
How did the prickly pear cactus grow as it did so that some creature might figure out just how it could actually become a meal!
The flowers bloomed and the dew nourished their growth. Dew, raindrops, rich soil and put them all together…a delicate, lovely flower. I still remember the song from my Sunday School years…
Oh who can make a flower? I know I can’t, can you?
Oh who can make a flower? No one but God, it’s true!
And the people danced in amazement as the world began to move away from its formlessness into something.
Creating was underway. God was working on my earthly home – the most wonderful building project ever, a world we would continue to hold in awe billions of years later.
WONDER AND AWE. AWE AND WONDER!
Consider the vast space of nothing that was about to become my home. It was to be a place where the Spirit would continue to breathe life into absolutely everything. A place where even the feathers of the birds are in just the right places.
And all the fanciful creatures on land, in the air and coming up from the sea that catch our attention. The comical monkey, the soaring eagle, the mighty whale. The storm clouds of winter and the first sign of spring; the heat of the summer and the colors of autumn.
Oh, who can make my world? I know I can’t. Can you?
Oh, who can make my world? Only God, ‘tis true!
Being an artist who is quite captivated with nature, I am also in awe of the magnitude and chaos of the cosmos. I can draw a tree but God created the forest. I can paint a sunflower but God created vegetation. I am able to throw clay on my potters’ wheel to make a container but God used the clay and created humankind!
I AM FILLED WITH AWE AND WONDER!
But…I must add just one more thing. If I had been the author of Genesis I would have written about God’s palette of color. “And God said, “Wow! Look at that color. It will take their breath away!” I think God would have been so enthusiastic with each discovery, “Amazing! Look at that sunset! Orange is just the right color!”
WONDER AND AWE.
A shapeless place taking shape. Something out of nothing. Balance and order. Strength and gentleness. Large and small.
God’s creating was basically complete when the Creator stepped back, filled with awe and wonder and said, “This is good. Very Good! Wait! I have another idea!”
At least, that is the way I think it could have happened.
Generalism is an enemy of wonder because it suppresses uniqueness (Roger Deakin Waterlog: A Swimmer’s Journey Through Britain)
These words sent chills (the good kind) through my body, covering me in goosebumps and sending my brain into high gear this last week. We live in a world of generalism. Advertisements tell us we should look the same and act the same and we expect others to adhere to our unspoken generalism rules. Competitiveness tells us we should look or act like someone else only better.
Yet we are all created unique. Every cell, every hand, foot, eye, face, in fact every part of us is unique and as we grow and age the changes in our bodies are unique too. I gaze at my silvery hair still streaked with a few strands of black. I run my hands over my face, through the wrinkles under my eyes and the smile lines around my mouth. I examine the sunspots on my hands -myriads of them small like stars coming out in the night sky, others brown and threatening growing like storm clouds gathering in the sky. They are part of who I am, part of the uniqueness that God has gifted to my body. I relish them. I am a unique creation filled with awe and wonder.
What if we all focused on this uniqueness in ourselves, in each other and in the created world and looked beyond the power of generalism and competitiveness?
Read Psalm 139:13-18 here quoted from The Voice, and think about your uniqueness. Run your hands over your face. Look at it in the mirror. Admire the uniqueness with which you are created.
For You shaped me, inside and out.
You knitted me together in my mother’s womb long before I took my first breath.
14 I will offer You my grateful heart, for I am Your unique creation, filled with wonder and awe.
You have approached even the smallest details with excellence;
Your works are wonderful;
I carry this knowledge deep within my soul.
15 You see all things; nothing about me was hidden from You
As I took shape in secret,
carefully crafted in the heart of the earth before I was born from its womb.
16 You see all things;
You saw me growing, changing in my mother’s womb;
Every detail of my life was already written in Your book;
You established the length of my life before I ever tasted the sweetnessof it.
17 Your thoughts and plans are treasures to me, O God! I cherish each and every one of them!
How grand in scope! How many in number!
18 If I could count each one of them, they would be more than all the grains of sand on earth. Their number is inconceivable!
Even when I wake up, I am still near to You.
Have you ever taken time to examine a hair under the microscope or held a handful of leaves in your hand and traced the unique shape of each of them? Now imagine expanding that examination through all the creatures of the world – Wow! Wow! and Wow! Talk about awe and wonder. Our uniqueness is inspiring. It takes my breath away. It makes me want to sing and dance with praise to our Creator.
That same uniqueness extends to the world around us. It is not just that each person or creature is unique either but every part of it is unique. There is no sameness, no generalism in God’s world. Not only does Psalm 139:13-18 apply to you, it applies to every person and I think every creature, every plant and every microbe that God has created and together we are hitched to weave together into a unique and awe inspiring tapestry of creation.
When we try to pick out anything by itself we find it hitched to the whole world (John Muir)
This was the second quote that held my attention this week. If we are not careful, focusing on our personal uniqueness can encourage us to become self centered, individualistic and even narcissistic. “God cares for me and for my needs” can exclude those around me and the beautiful world in which God has placed us. But if we see ourselves “hitched to the world world”, intricately woven into a beautiful tapestry that God is creating then our attitude changes. We are created not for ourselves but for each other. We are created not to admire our own individual uniqueness but to recognize its gifts and use them to benefit the whole world.
When I think of this the amazing network of millennial filaments in my garden comes to mind
It’s an information superhighway that speeds up interactions between a large, diverse population of individuals. It allows individuals who may be widely separated to communicate and help each other out….
Evidently 90% of plants are hooked into the “Wood Wide Web”
By linking to the fungal network they (trees) can help out their neighbours by sharing nutrients and information – or sabotage unwelcome plants by spreading toxic chemicals through the network. (Plants Talk to Each Other Using a Network of Fungi)
Sounds like what God intends for us to be doing too. Each unique creature hitched to each other through other unique creatures – to share nutrients and information and sabotage unwelcome enemies. More wows! More happy dances of awe and wonder.
What is Your Response?
Close your eyes and visualize the God delighted to lovingly craft you in your mother’s womb and nurture you as you stumbled through the first hesitant steps of childhood and grappled with the challenges of life. Picture God reaching down and reaching down and rescuing you from your mistakes and brokenness because of that delight. (Gift of Wonder 50)
Remind yourself of how special and unique you are and your journey with God is. Take time to journal about your uniqueness and the sense of God God’s delight in who you are.
Now ask yourself: How am I hitched to the people and the world around me? Write down what comes to you.
Last question: How do you share nutrients and information and sabotage unwelcome enemies? Allow God to unveil new ways that you can reach out and share in our desperately divided world.
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Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here. (John 11:41, 42)
These words that Jesus prays before raising Lazarus from the dead have reverberated in my mind this last week. Maybe it is because I am once more writing prayers as a way to express my love for God and draw closer to the divine presence. Maybe it is because one of the talks I am giving in the next couple of weeks is on gratitude as stewardship. Maybe it is just because I am learning to relish the presence of God in new and wonderful ways and want to express that every day.
As I read these word, I was struck particularly by the confidence of that prayer. Jesus knew that God heard him. He didn’t feel the need to shout, manipulate of beg to try to get God’s attention. He didn’t feel the need to persuade God to do something for him, he just acted in the confidence that God heard him.
How often I come to God unsure of whether or not God is listening. How often I come feeling that I need to convince God to listen to what I am saying and take notice – more like the psalmist who cries God hear my prayer. How often I question the seeming lack of response.
What does it take for us to live in that confident place of knowing that God hears our prayers?
First we need to come in gratitude – Jesus thank you is a heartfelt cry of gratitude to the One that he knows as a loving and caring Father. Gratitude awakens us to the fact that God is already at work in the situation we are praying for. It opens our eyes to see what God is doing and molds our prayers to the divine will.
More than anything gratitude can express our amazement at the fact that God does actually listen to us and answer our prayers. That takes my breath away. That the great and powerful Creator of the universe reaches down and listens to the prayers that each of us pray is incredible – worthy of awe filled gratitude.
Second we need to come confident that we are praying the right prayer. I have often wondered why Jesus waited two days before coming to Bethany to see Lazarus who by then had died and been laid in the tomb. I suspect that he spent at least part of that time praying and asking God about what he should do. Another healing we would have rejoiced at, but resurrection was spectacular. It stunned us into seeing Jesus and I think also God, in a new and awe inspiring way. How close, I wonder, did Jesus come to missing it because he so wanted to see his friend healed.
Third we need to come with a sense of the presence of God deep within our being. So often we pray out of a sense of our own needs or concerns without taking time to centre ourselves on the presence of God and remind ourselves that the One to whom we offer our prayers can only, ever respond in the loving way.
Fourth we need to come expecting and looking for God’s answers. So often I pray a prayer and then dash onto the next thing, not taking time to notice and savour what God is doing in response to my request. We not only need to give thanks for the fact that God hears our prayers, we also need to give thanks for the answers.
I have a friend who keeps a prayer journal – jotting down his prayers, writing out his hopes and expectations for that prayer and then writing down the response that comes. He sees this as a way to more closely align his will with God’s. I think this is a wonderful idea but to my embarrassment I must admit that I have never implemented it.
In response to my reflections I wrote the prayer above. The photo is of one of my prayer plants. Its leaves rise in the evening and look as though they are praying. I hope the prayer will continue to revolve in my mind and also in yours drawing you closer to the abiding presence of God and fill you with the confidence that God both hears and responds to our prayers.
By Lilly Lewin
I live in a transitioning, gentrifying neighborhood. It’s a wonderful location, and thanks to fighting a developer to try to stop over building on the hill, I’ve met a lot of my neighbors. I learned from some wise people in Oakland, that if you are the one who is gentrifying, then you need to take the time to get to know the place and people who are already in your new neighborhood. The people who’ve lived there for years and know the history and the culture. Don’t assume you know anything. Take the time to listen and learn and be a good neighbor. I heard a statistic recently that said that only a third of people actually know their neighbors! That makes me so sad. I believe the commandment to LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR begins with those who are living around us!
Do you know your neighbors?
Do you want to know them?
Really?
What would it take to get to know them?
What makes you afraid to get to know them?
Maybe you live in an apartment or condo building where people come and go frequently…
Maybe you don’t have neighbors who live close by so it feels a lot harder.
Once upon a time people had local coffee shop, the pub, the barbershop, the cafe.
We use these still, but too often it’s with our computers or cell phones in front of our faces, or our ear buds in, it’s not about social interaction.
What if it was?
And that leads me to what I really am thinking about today…
“I GET TO… 
My friend artist and super creative Scott Erickson has a painting framed in his studio that says
I GET TO…
It’s a reminder of the privilege and opportunity he has to be a full time artist and creative. He doesn’t have to be out digging ditches or pouring concrete like the guys are doing next door to me right now.
Consider what you “GET TO” do in your life…
What are the things you “GET TO DO” that you take for granted?
Yesterday, as they were pouring concrete for a new house to be built next door, I was at my computer working on a writing project in air conditioning while the guys were working in 93 degree heat.
I got to walk my dog around the neighborhood for exercise (his and mine)
I got to go with my son to
see a specialist regarding a surgery he needs because has a good job and good health insurance).
I had time and space to go to my pilates class, a gift I’ve given to myself because of the heart disease that runs in my family.
I GOT to choose what I would have for lunch and dinner and it was very healthy food and dark chocolate for dessert.
I had lots of freedom and privilege yesterday and I have it again today.
Sadly, I too often forget this gift of “ I GET TO”
Sadly I moan and complain that i don’t know what’s next, or the fact that people don’t understand what i want to bring to the world.
These are all first world, “one percenter” problems. I confess that I am guilty of “the grumble” rather than “the gratitude” Too often I’m falling into the trap of NOT ENOUGH rather than receiving the GIFT of I GET TO!
What are the things that you “GET TO” do in your real world life?
What are the privileges you might be forgetting?
What are the REAL GIFTS that you get to receive today?
Even simple things like running water and indoor plumbing!
What is your “ I GET TO”? that you might have forgotten all about, or forgotten to be grateful for in your life?
Today…
I get to do laundry in my home, not at a laundromat today.
I get to enjoy sunshine and a beautiful blue sky.
I get to be with people who love me.
I get to rejoice with a good friend who is healing and doesn’t have cancer!
I get to do creative work that brings me joy
I get to be grateful for five years post cancer.
I get to enjoy a day that is a gift.
So what about you? What are you grateful for that you GET TO Do?
Let me know what you are excited about that you “GET TO” in the comments below!
And have a great weekend getting to do so many wonderful things or just doing nothing at all!
Getting to REST! That’s the best “GET TO” of all!
You can print out the PDF of the Coloring Sheet of I GET TO that I designed, and use this to pray with as you color…consider all the things you GET TO do in your life! How can you plan to see these GET TOs as Gifts this summer?
©lillylewin freerangeworship@gmail.com
by Christine Sine
This prayer was the focus of my meditation this morning. Walking in the footsteps of Jesus is a growing passion for me. Learning to understand more clearly what that looks like has been a life long journey. It has moved me from a self centered individualistic faith to one that is focused on caring for others. May we all continue to walk the path with zeal and enthusiasm.
We are launching a new theme after Pentecost (June 9th) for the summer called, Reading Life Differently.
We live in a state of constant change – the seasons, the world around us, our lives are all in a rhythm of change and our faith needs to be able to change to adapt and help us move through the new landscapes we encounter. Spring will give way to summer, autumn will transition into winter. We need to know how to adapt and look with fresh and hope filled eyes at the changing landscape.
In The Gift of Wonder, I comment
To reshape our spiritual practices periodically, intentionally planning to give God delight and experience God’s delight in us is awe inspiring. Trips away, life transitions, seasons of the year, or the Christian Calendar all provide fantastic opportunities to create new and appropriate transformative spiritual places that draw us closer to God and into the beauty and joy of intimacy. (The Gift of Wonder 160)
Some of you are getting ready for summer. Others are preparing for winter. We are all preparing for change. So take time as you prepare for the changing seasons to think about how you need to see life differently and reshape your spiritual practices.
Where will we look for awe and wonder in this new season? What are the signposts that guide us? How will God be revealed? How can we help those around us get ready for the changes?
All of us need to read life differently and avoid becoming stuck in a rut or confined to a box. We need to look forward with anticipation and hope – not regretting the fading of spring blooms but rejoicing in the ripening fruit, not seeing trees stripped bare by winter’s unfolding but the magnificent skeleton of twisted limbs finally revealed to our sight.
What has helped change your perspective on life, faith and the world in which we live so that your cup is half full rather than half empty, full of love not burdened by hate? What advice do you have for those that are looking for a fresh and more positive perspective on life?
We are excited to share and have an opportunity to both explore new approaches and share the different perspectives that you have gained as you meditate, travel and encounter fresh experiences.
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